Class 
Book 




54r( 



„-li 



I «-54- 






AN ABRIDGMENT 



INTERIOR SPIRIT OF THE RELIGIOUSfc ^ ,. 

5o 



VISITATION 



BLESSED TIRGIN MARY. 

SXPLAINED BY ST. FBANCIS,-OF SALES, BISHOP AND PBINCE 

OF GEJIEVA, AND COLLECTED BY THE LATE MB. 

MAUPAS, BISHOP OF BYBEUX. 



Tbanslated fbom the Pbenoh 




WASHINGTON: 

PUBLISHED BY GEORGE TEMPLEMA^^. 

31834. 



\ 






Wm. W. Moobe, Phikter* 



AN ABRIDGMENT 



2 INTERIOR SPIRIT OP THE RELIGIOUS OP THE VlSI- 

TATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 



CHAPTER I. 



Of the Interior Spirit of the Daughters of the 
Visitation ^founded on Mount Calvary. 
The little congregation of the Daughters 
of the Visitation resembles a sacred fountain 
from which many souls will draw the 
waters of salvation ; their whole life, both 
interior and exterior, is consecrated to God. 
It is a life entirely spiritual, the actions and 
re agnations of which are so many prayers. 
All their hours are dedicated to God; 
yes, even those of sleep and recreation 
are the fruits of charity. The glory which 
redounds to God from the seclusion of so 
many persons, assembled together for the 
increase of divine love, multiplying every 



day, makes an almost infinite sum of spi- 
ritual riches and treasures of grace. 

They are living holocausts, hosts and pre- 
cious victims of perpetual sacrifice, who 
oflfer themselves to God on the altar of 
Calvary, to serve, without intermission, 
Jesus Christ crucified, their only spouse ;, 
they participate in the spirit of the cross, 
they enter into the holy dispositions of his 
martyrdom, to learn, how to crucify them- 
selves at each moment. They renounce 
all the movements of their heart, except 
those which incline them to love him ; their 
tongues are employed only in praising him ; 
they make no other use of their thoughts 
than to adore him, and to adanire his great- 
ness. Their hand« are occupied only in 
gathering at the foot of the cross the little 
virtues of humility, meekness, and sim*- 
plicity, which grow there, and which are 
watered with the blood of their well be- 
loved, fastened to their hearts as on his 
cross; their minds act only to learn and 
penetrate the- meaning of this divine les- 
son of seff-renuneiation, carrying the cross 
audi following their Gnucified Savior, ia^ 



abandonments, prrivations, ignominies, in- 
juries, agonies, and ia^^lLhis other suffer- 
ings, as atlso of entering into the practice 
of these amiable virtues of indifference, 
tranquillity, equality of mind, of obedience, 
poverty, and charity, which are comprised 
in the great lesson taught us on Calvary. 
Meditating day and night on this book of 
the predestinate, at the head of which is 
written, " I will accomplish thy will, and 
thy law shall be in the midst of my heart,^ 
love induces them to receive and eat 
this sacred volume, to fill their breasts, 
and to nourish their hearts ; the secrets 
enclosed therein are always before their 
eyes, that they may meditate thereon, 
and they bear these maxims on their 
arms to reduce them to practice, for 
which all the powers of their souls bless 
and praise incessantly the majesty of God. 
Amiable volume, which, although it casts 
a bitterness into the interior, since it con- 
ducts to the perfect mortification of self- 
love, yet is sweeter than honey to the 
lips, since the mortification of self-love 
is an unparalleled consolation, eausini? 



iiim and his love to reign who was cruci- 
fied for the love of us. Thus their great- 
est bitterness is, on this sacred mount, 
changed into the sweetness of a most 
abundant peace, which replenishes them 
with true happiness, and establishes them 
in the abode of the wounds of the spouse, 
in which they find an abyss of graces that 
confirm them in their generous enterprises 
under their crucified King. This causes 
them invariably to tend to a union with him, 
giving them this happy experience, that one 
hour spent in this holy retreat is far better 
than thousands of days passed in the palaces 
of princes, since it is there he gains their 
hearts. Alas J if this Savior has done so 
much for us, what ought we not do for 
him? If he has sacrificed his life for uSj 
why do we not subject our whole life to 
his service and glory ? 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Frfincis. of 

Sales, on the same subject, 

A heart which esteems and truly loves 

Jesus crucified, cherishes his ignominies, 

his torcieats, and his death; and when some 



little portion of these falls to its lot, it is re- 
joiced thereat, and embraces them with love. 

St. Peter had suflBcient courage t« say 
live Jesus on Mount Thabor ; but to re- 
peat the same on Mount Calvary, is pe- 
culiar to the loving fidelity of the blessed 
Virgin and her amiable children. 

The true lover of the cross and passion 
of our Lord, desires no other joy than that 
which is found on Mount Calvary with Je- 
sus Christ. 

Although St. Peter loved Thabor more 
than Calvary, yet the blood which flowed on 
the one was more fruitful and more desir^l- 
ble than the light which shone on the other. 

Oh ! how precious are the stones which 
appeared so hard on Calvary, since the 
whole palace of the celestial Jerusalem, so 
brilliant, so beautiful, and so amiable, is 
built of these rich materials ! 

If jealousy could reign in the kingdom 
of eternal bliss, the angels would envy not 
only the sufferings of God for man, but 
those of man for God 

If we desire our life to be hidden with Je- 
sus Christ in God^ we must annihilate owr- 



8 

selves, and live no longer for ourselves, but 
for Him who has acquired life for us by his 
death.^ 

Jesus Christ on the cross immolated his 
heart and his love for our sake ; why then 
do we not immolate our heart and our love 
on this same altar, for the love of Him who 
has so much loved us ? 

The inhabitants of Calvary have Jesus 
crucified for their pilot, his cross for 
their mast, the winds of celestial inspi- 
ration for the sails of their vessel, and for 
their anchor they have a firm confidence 
that they will happily arrive at the port of 
a blessed eternity, 



CHAPTER II. 



St. Francis, of SaleSy proposes the humili^ 
ty of Jesus Christ to his daughters for 
their imitation. 

This incomparable legislator wished that 
his daughters should have no knowledge 
except that of Jesus Christ crucified ; show- 
ing them in the midst of that adorable vo- 



lame these divine characters, " Learn of me 
who am humble of heart." It is this humili- 
ty, my dear daughters, said this holy foun- 
der, which forms religious discipline, which 
is the foundation of the spiritual edi- 
fice, and the infallible mark of the children 
of Jesus Christ. Wherefore you should 
pay a special attention to it ; performing all 
your actions in the spirit of a profound, sin- 
cere, and frank humility. This virtue, 
well practised, will advance you in the ex- 
ercise of a humility generally unknown ; 
and will so plunge you in your unworthi- 
jaess, that you will disappear in your own 
eyes, and in those of the world ; since it is 
so conformable to yaur spirit, to avoid eclat, 
and seek annihilation, that if you fail you 
will lose your treasure, and will no longer 
be Daughters of the Visitation. Know 
then that your congregation will never 
exalt its branches and fruits, but in pro- 
portion as its roots are planted deep in the 
love of baseness and abjection. 

Walk then generously in these low val- 
leys, gathering, at the foot of the cross, the 
iov^ of humility, since God himself, through 



10 

the esteem he had for it, left for a time the 
exercise of his royalty, annihilating him- 
self even to the opprobium of the cross. 
By this, all are taught to practice the max- 
ims of the apostolic spirit, and you that 
of your institute, which requires that, if 
you can be useful for his glory, laboring 
at any work whatever, and even in erect- 
ing other congregations of servants of God? 
without ever establishing yourselves, you 
would not on this account be less agreeable 
to his Divine Majesty ; practising, by tliis 
means, humility in a sovereign degree ; and 
God, beholding in the centre of your heart 
this amorous inclination to abjection, would 
no doubt establish you, and would raise 
you exceedingly in that kind of life to 
which he has called you. Leave yourselv es 
implicitly to the guidance of this loving con- 
ductor, without considering whither you 
are going, but with whom. Now, you 
are going with your king and your crucified 
spouse ; for you go with him by abasing, 
humbling, and contemning yourselves, even 
to the death oi* all your passions, and, I may 
say, even to the death of the cross. JJut 



11 

this humility, this abasement, this self-con^ 
tempt ought to be practised sweetly, peacea- 
bly, and constantly ; ever animating your hu- 
mility with courage and confidence in God, 
who will not permit you to perform an ac- 
tion to attract praise, or to omit any through 
fear of being esteemed. In fine, let him 
dispose of your life, your esteem, and your 
honor, as he pleases, since all belongs to 
him. If your abjection tends to his glory, 
ought not your joy to increase in propor- 
tion to your abjection ? 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis^ of 
Sales J on the same subject. 

The generous humility of our Jesus, 
of his holy Mother, and of the most va- 
liant soldiers of his militia, has surmount- 
ed tyrants, subdued kings,, and gained the 
whole world to the obedience of the cross. 

Christians denominate pride and vanity 
bareness and cowardice ; and, on the con- 
trary, they consider the acceptation of con- 
tempts, humiliations, and thelove of abjec- 
tion, true greatness and courage. 



12 

It is pride that troubles us ; it is self-love 
that casts us into impatience on seeing our* 
selves mean and abject ; for peace and humil- 
ity are inseparable. 

Humility inclines us meekly to bear with 
ourselves, by humbling ourselves profound- 
ly before God, without dejection or discou- 
ragement. 

Humility renders our heart meek to- 
wards both the perfect and imperfect. 

Whoever possesses humility acknow- 
ledges that, unless God serve as his shield 
and buckler, he will immediately be wound- 
ed by all kinds of sins. 

The love of objection is the root and foun- 
dation of peace and joy. 

If you are not favored, cherish this state ; 
for God willingly beholds what is contemn- 
ed, and baseness acknowledged is always 
very agreeable to him. 

The best abjections are those which we 
ourselves have not chosen, and which are 
less agreeable to us. 

True humility shuns offices, but it is not 
obstinate in refusing them ; it does not stop 
at its own un worthiness ; whenever it s^es 



13 

the command, it is satisfied to be submis- 
sive to the will of God, and to undertake 
all that superiors direct,. 

It is the highest point of humility to remain 
tranquil, amidst contempts, abandonments, 
and obscurities, loving and embracing them 
with joy. 



CHAPl'ER HI. 

On the Love of our Neighbor. 

^' This is my commandment, that you love' 
one another as I have loved you-" These 
are, my dear daughters, the sacred words 
of him whom you have taken for your per- 
fect model, the Savior of the world, by 
which he invites you to labor in acquir- 
ing the holy love of your neighbor, regard- 
ing him as the chief of God's works, and 
his living image.. Now he who will cor- 
rect his neighbor in meekness and service, 
will be the most faithful imitator of Christ 
Jesus. The greatest sacrifice which you 
eaa make;, my de^r daughters, is to have 



14 

not only a solid love for your neighbor, but 
also a tender, sweet, and cordial love ; 
to embrace cheerfully those persons for 
whom you feel a natural aversion. Ca- 
ress the infirm, the unpolished, and those 
who seem to you to be of the worst humor; 
excuse their defects, as much as you can, 
in the spirit of perfect charity, and remem- 
ber that infirmities are good schools of true 
charity for those who assist the afflicted, 
and of an amorous patience for those who 
suffer pains and afflictions. The former are 
fjEit the foot of the cross with our Lady, whose 
compassion they imitate ; and the latter are 
on the cross with our Lord, whose passion 
they exemplify. This charity ought to make 
you love your neighbor as yourself, not 
with a natural, sensual, or interested love, 
but with a pure and invariable charity ; for, 
where your affection is natural, it has nei- 
ther goodness nor beauty ; but, when it is 
founded on God, it has its just value. It 
must be suffered to dilate and take root in 
your heart, as much as possible ; for it will 
be excellent, because it comes from God ; 



15 

excellent, because it tends to God ; excel- 
lent, because its bond will be God ; and 
excellent, because it will last eternally iu 
God. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Of Charity in the Reception of Subjects, 

St. Bernard observes that the apostle 
calls God.notthe Father of Judgment, nor 
the God of Vengeance, but the Father of 
Mercies; and the Bishop of Geneva desired 
that his daughters should be the Mo- 
thers of Chai'ity rather than of Justice. You 
are, my dear daughters, said he to these 
holy souls, destined to serve for the glory 
of God and the necessities of your neigh- 
bor; live then, under the care of divine 
Providence, like humble servants of Jesus 
Christ, who tenderly loves those persons 
that are apparently the meanest and most 
miserable ; wherefore, you should never 
forget this maxim, not to live according to 



16 

human prudence, but always agreeably to 
the rules of faith and of the gospel. The 
gospel will teach you not to consider the 
weakness of constitutions or corporal in- 
firmities, but to let the weak and defective^ 
whether of body, family or judgment, and 
those who are despised by the world, en- 
ter the banquet of religion. The rules of 
the gospel will overcome evil by good, and 
imperfections by meekness, for whoever 
would receive into the congregation only 
perfect creatures, and those who might oc- 
casion them no pain or trouble, would serve 
her neighbor but very little, and would not 
conform to the end of her institute, which 
clearly specifies that the congregation was 
established that such souls as desired to 
live entirely for God, might not be prevent- 
ed by old age or weakness of constitution. 
Be you the God of the unfortunate, says 
St. Gregory Nazianz^en, in imitation of the 
mercy of God: Man has nothing more di- 
vine, than to be able to do good to his neigh- 
bor ; learn then to open your heart to com- 
passion and charity, for those who have 
need of your assistance. Oh ! how well 



17 

did these two Bishops of Nazianzen and Ge- 
neva agree in their maxims, as well as in 
their practices of piety ! The Bishop of 
Geneva, animated by this charity, speaking 
to the religious of the visitation, said that if 
there was but one wanting to complete the 
number of the community and that two sub- 
jects should present themselves at the same 
time to be received, one very strong and 
healthy, and the other weak and infirm, he 
would prefer receiving the infirm, though 
she were blind or lame, provided she had a 
sound mind and was well disposed to live 
in a profound meekness, humility, obedi- 
ence, simplicity and resignation, since the 
robust could more easily find a retreat in 
another house. We must greatly fear na- 
tural reason in the discernment of grace; 
forgetting ourselves and combatting the hu- 
man spirit in favor of abjection and pure 
charity. Unless the prudence of the ser- 
pent be blended with the simplicity of the 
dove, the Holy Spirit, it will be absolutely 
venomous. Suppose that a subject is natu- 
rally as bad as you could imagine ; how- 
ever^ if she acts, in essential matters, by the 



18 

impulse of grace and not by that of nature^ 
she deserves to be received with love and 
respect, as a temple of the holy spirit : nay, 
though she were a wolf by nature, caress 
this amiable person, since grace has render- 
ed her a lamb. When subjects are gentle, 
pliable, innocent and pure, although they 
are not possessed of great minds, they should 
be received • For in whom does the spirit 
of the Lord dwell, if not in the poor and 
innocent, who love and fear his word ? Let 
them only remain as associates until they 
be instructed and fit for the choir, if they 
have talents for it. You must not receive 
the rich because they are rich, but because 
they have the proper qualifications ; if they 
are not possessed of them, and are weak, 
old, or subject to sickness, they are to be 
made associate sisters, since this rank was 
instituted for such constitutions. If they 
are strong, let them, be employed in the 
service of the house, and even to help the 
lay-sisters. If subjects are well disposed, 
although they have not great ardor of re- 
solution, it matters not ; ardor as w^ell as 
indifference often originates in natural dis- 



19 

positions of the mind, and our Lord knows 
how to ingraft his grace on both, in the or- 
chard of religion. 

In short you must absolutely prefer the 
meek and humble, although they are poor, 
to the rich, who are less meek and hum- 
ble ; not that I wish you to reject those of 
a strong constitution, and who are rude, 
untamed, and apt to commit many faults, 
provided they permit themselves to be po- 
lished, tamed and cured ; suffering cou- 
rageously, and with a docile heart, the 
mortification, penance, and other remedies 
necessary for their disease ; for, generally 
speaking, with the assistance and care of 
the charitable laborer, such plants produce 
delicious fruits. Such were the sentiments 
of our amiable Father, who knew per- 
fectly what the great Apostle said, that 
^^virtue is perfected in infirmity." He 
understood well this beautiful saying of St, 
Gregory Nazianzen, ^^ that a soul afflicted 
with sickness is near to God : " he more- 
over comprehended that saying of the illus- 
trious old man, in the lives of the fathers : 
speaking to one of his religious, who was 



20 

seduced to a pitiable state of languor; "it 
is, said he, a sovereign act of religion to 
return thanks to God amidst our infirmi- 
ties : if you are iron, the furnace of afflic- 
tion will destroy your rust ; if gold, the 
crucible and fire of tribulation will consume 
your dross, and render you more refined.'^ 



CHAPTER V. 



In what manner charity is to be exercised 
in foundations and missions. 

My dear daughters, said this charitable 
Father, God has called you to an entire ab- 
negation and renunciation of yourselves, 
that you may, without distinction of place, 
nation, or province, purely and simply pro- 
pagate his glory, with no other interest than 
that of pleasing him; for it ought not to 
be sufficient for you merely to serve your 
neighbor ; you must suffer yourselves to 
be employed either by him, or for him, ac- 
cording to holy obedience ; quitting God 



21 

for God, and renouncing those delights and 
pleasures which you might enjoy in your 
monasteries, to serve him amidst the pain 
and labor which this change of place may 
occasion. What matters it to a truly loving 
soul, whether her celestial spouse be serv- 
ed here or there, by this or that means ? »She 
that seeks only to please her well beloved, 
and is satisfied with whatever pleases him. 
Daughters sacrifice the presence of their 
fathers and mothers, and leave their coun- 
tries, to submit to an unknown husband, or 
at least to one whose humor is unknown to 
them ; and why shall not the children of God 
be still more courageous to go and cultivate 
in those new hives swarms ofbees to collect 
the honey of divine love, for the propagation 
of the glory of their spouse ? The apostles 
were sent over all the earth to continue what 
the Savior of the world came to do, to give 
life to man ; and not only life, but an ex- 
cellent and most abundant life. Thus, my 
dear daughters, you are destined, as partak- 
ers of the apostolic spirit, to go and impart 
to many souls the knowledge of the evan- 
gelical perfection comprised in your insti- 



22 

gtute ; and, although your sex hinders yoti 
from bearing the dignity of apostles, you 
hold their oflSce ; for without administering 
the sacraments and forgiving sins, do you 
not go to impart life, and a most abundant 
life, since so many persons, in imitation of 
you, withdraw from the world, who 
would have lost heaven amidst its dan- 
gers and vanities ? 

If the consideration of your weakness 
disturbs you, raise your eyes to God, and 
animate your courage ; cast all your appre- 
hensions into the bosom of divine love. 
He never employs souls in great and diffi- 
cult things, without giving them eve- 
ry knowledge and assistance requisite to 
acquit themselves in a manner becoming his 
glory; were it necessary, he would even 
send an angel to conduct them. Fear no- 
thing, my dear daughters ; go and under- 
take courageously all that regards the ser- 
vice of God ; he will be at your right hand^ 
that no difficulty may overcome you; he 
will support you with his arm, that you 
may follow his way. 



The apostles were ignorant fishermen^ 
yet God endowed them with wisdom in pro- 
portion to the charges he imposed on them; 
thus will he bless you in going, in remain- 
ing, in serving him, in serving your neigh- 
bor, in humbling yourselves even to your 
nothingness, and raising yon again to him- 
self. It was thus he animated the courage of 
his devout daughters ; taking from them nat 
only the fears of dangers and temptations, 
but even rendering them terrible to their 
enemies. 

^^ The friend of God shall alarm the pow- 
ers of hell," said St. Ambrose ; " who v/ill 
ziot fear him whom God cherishes, who has 
God for the arbiter of his interest, for the 
protector of his cause, and for the avenger 
of his quarrel ; for whom God himself en- 
ters into the combat to insure the victory.^' 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis, of 
Sales^ on the same subject. 

He who does not consider his neighbor 
in the heart of God, will be in danger of 
not loTing hipa purely^ constantly, or 



m 

equally. But, in this sacred heart, wha 
&an refrain from loving and supporting him ? 
who could find him disagreeable or te- 
dious ? He is there so amiable and so much 
beloved, that the lover dies of love for him- 

Sincere charity finds nothing too low^ or 
too difficult in the service of its neighbor^ 
Since in heaven we shall love each other, 
through the love of Jesus Christ, why then 
does not this same love unite our hearts 
here below ? 

Jesus Christ coming into the world to 
^ave souls, rendered his zeal humble, mild^ 
and amiable. 

" The whole law,'' says St. Paul, " is 
accomplished in one single word : " Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

This induced our holy prelate to reduce 
the spirit of the Visitation to the most solid 
practices of charity. The true and short 
definition of virtue, says St. Augustine, is 
the commandment of love. He has estab- 
lished in me, said the spouse in the canti- 
eles, the order and rule of charity ; and St. 
Chrysostom says that charity is the princi- 



9S 



pie and end of all virtues, and the founda- 
tion and summit of the spiritual edifice^ 



CHAPTER VI. 

Of abandonment to Divine Providence. 

Who can resist the strength of the arm 
of God^ says the wise man. The whole 
universe, in his sight, resembles a ba- 
lance which either rises or falls at the 
least inclination of the hand of him wha 
holds it, and who gives it either rest or motion 
at his pleasure. It may also be compared to 
a drop of dew, which disappears at the first 
heat of the day without one's perceiving it^ 
before the sun is advanced above our hori- 
zon. It is by this we learn to contemn 
creatures and esteem God alone ; to feel 
our weakness and unworthiness, and to es- 
tablish our confidence in him who can and 
will help us. This is the fourth lesson 
which this holy patriarch, St. Francis, 
would have his daughters learn of Jesus 



26 

Christ crucified, the perfect abandonment 
of themselves to his adorable providence. 
Man, says he, has been planted in the 
world by the hand of his Creator as a beau- 
tiful tree cultivated by his wisdom, and 
watered with the blood of Jesus Christ, 
that he may bring forth fruits worthy of 
the master to whom he appertains. 

God, who makes thoins appear before 
roses in what he designs for his glory, 
and who permits nothing to befall those 
who fear and love him, but that which may 
purify and perfect them, is pleased that 
man, of his own free will, should let him- 
self be governed by his good pleasure. 

Receive then, my dear daughters, with 
indifference, the temptations and contradic- 
tions whieh occur in the spiritual life, in a 
perfect union of your will with that of God. 
This lesson is very exalted, but God, who 
teaches it to you, is the Most High. Should 
you possess nothing but him, would you 
not have sufficie»it? Do you not wish to 
be daughters and servants of his celestial 
providence, and of the loving heart of this 
diviuje Savior? Is it not on this burning 



27 

furnace of love that you have built all your 
hopes? Then, what does it import whe- 
ther you be on Thabor or on Calvary, in 
this state or in that ? 

Happy is the soul who seeks God alone, 
for she will find every where what she 
seeks, and she will seek every where what 
she has. 

He who loves his master only, serves 
him cheerfully and with great equality, 
on every occasion, without considering 
whether the effects will be useful, profita- 
ble, or hurtful. He is satisfied to know 
that this r.i vine Savior loves with extreme 
ten«ierness those who are so happy as to 
abandon themselves to his providence, with 
a firm resolution to be governed by it on 
all occasions ; for then God undertakes the 
care of all, the soul having nothing to do 
but to repose on his bosom and in his sa- 
cred arms. There all disquietudes and 
eagerness for enjoyment cease, and all 
trouble subsides. 

In this state, all events and accidents are 
received with trariquillity ; for he who is 
in the arms of God, who reposes on his 



bosom, and who abandons himself to his 
good pleasure, can fear nothing; pro- 
nouncing on all occasions the holy fiat of 
our Savior : '* Father, into thy hands I 
commend my spirit, my body, my mind, 
and all that I have." 

Oh, Eternal Father, says the wise man, 
who governeth all things by thy provi- 
dence, what reason has not thy creature to 
east himself into thy arms, and to abandon 
himself to the direction of thy adorable 
wisdom and bounty ! 

Though a mother, says our divine Sa- 
vior, speaking by the prophet Isaiah, 
should forget the child of her bosom, f^et 
will I never forget thee. 

God belongs to the soul, says St. Ber- 
nard, because he is benign and merciful ; 
and the faithful soul belongs to God, be- 
eause she is not ungrateful. God imparts 
to her his grace by an impulse of his boun- 
ty, and she returns thanks to God for so 
worthy an effect of his amiable goodness. 
He suffered for my liberty, says the faithful 
soul) and I will suffer for his glory ; he gave 
himself for my salvation, aud I will aban- 



€lon myself entirely to his good pleasure^ 
and will have no other dependence than 
his will. He is mine, because I am his 
unique and cherished dove; I am his 
exclusively, for I listen not to the voice of 
a stranger, but submit to that of my God. 
This is the agreeable intercourse be- 
tween the providence of God with regard 
to his creature, and the confidence of the 
creature in the affection of so good and 
amiable a Father. 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis on 
the same subject. 

He who would rather die than quit the 
standard of the cross, has nothing to fear, 
for God will bless his afflictions. 

You are happy if you receive with a 
heart fiHally amorous, whatever it pleases 
our Lord to send, with a heart paternally 
watchful over your perfection. 

There is no recompense without victo- 
ry, nor victory without combat ; let us ani- 
mate our courage, and convert our pains 
into acts of virtue. 



30 

When the heart is in heaven it cannot be 
agitated by the accidents of the earth. 

This sovereign goodness sometimes de- 
lights in seeing his children in perplexity 
and pain, that they may afterwards better 
relish his caresses and benedictions. 

It is not tranquillity which draws God 
into our hearts ; it is the fidelity of our love. 

We must establish, as the principal foun- 
dation of our happiness, the consolation of 
belonging to God, and then all unpleasant 
events will be disregarded, having such a 
support and so excellent a refuge. 

The Divinity furnishes a source of un- 
interrupted graces to those who serve him 
courageously, valiantly, unremittingly.-—^ 
Therefore, never lose that perfect confi- 
dence which you should have in the good- 
ness of God, says the great Apostle, 



CHAPTER VII. 



Of the Vow of Chastity, 

The vow of chastity has always been con- 
sidered as fundamental in congregations of 



31 

females : it is not necessary to declare to 
you, my daughters, said St. Francis, how 
strictly you are obliged to observe it ; for, 
in a word, you ought to live, breathe, and 
pant, but for your celestial spouse in all 
sanctity of mind, of words, of demeanor and 
of actions, by an immaculate and angelical 
conversation. 

What a happiness for you voluntarily to 
observe chastity, even in this life, with the 
same purity, that the angels and blessed 
spirits necessarily observe in heaven ! 
This virtue is so noble that it renders souls 
as fair as lilies, and as pure as the sun ; it con- 
secrates the body and procures it the ines- 
timable advantage of being entirely dedicat- 
ed to the divine majesty, so as to be able to 
say, " my heart and my flesh leap for joy, 
through the impulse of thy love, which has 
made me quit every pleasure." In effect, 
the spouses of our Savior, inhabitants of 
Calvary, should be divested of all human 
desires and affections, as their divine spouse 
was of his garments, when he arrived 
there ; so that having laid aside all the robes 
of their captivity, by continual renuncia- 



32 

tion, they remain near him at the feast oi 
the cross, a thousand times more delightful 
than those ol worldly nuptials, being clad 
with the white robe ; that is to say, with a 
pure intention of pleasing the lamb. You 
should then, my daughters, resolve to live 
on this sacred Mount, with your dying 
Savior, amidst pains and abandonments ; 
saying with the spouse in the canticles, 
" my beloved is tome a posy of myrrh." I 
will place him tenderly on my bosom and 
will repeat, a hundred times in the day, 
^' this is my hope, the living source of my 
happiness, the heart of my soul, and the 
soul of my heart ; nothing shall ever sepa- 
rate me from his love, since 1 wish for life 
only to render myself a holocaust agreeable 
to him." It was thus that this great bishop 
invited these innocent souls, who had the 
happiness of living under his direction, to 
the summit of perfection and sanctity, since, 
in the opinion of the great St. Dennis, ^- true 
sanctity consists in a perfect exemption 
froro every blemish than can tarnish or dis- 
figure the soul in the sight of God." It is 
this integrity which Tertullian calls the 



33 

flower of good morals, the honor of the 
body, the ornament of both sexes, the foun- 
dation of sanctity, and the presage of a holy 
soul. These are the visible angels of 
whom Saint Angustin speaks, and of whom 
the great St. Jerome composes for the Son 
of God a new family, that he may be ador- 
ed by virgins on earth as he is adored by 
angels in heaven. 

Reflections and Maxims of St, Francis on 
the same subject. 

The divine and select spouse of holy 
souls is a bundle of myrrh : whoever loves 
him, must necessarily love bitterness. Je- 
sus Christ usually gratifies his beloved 
souls in this life, only with the honor of 
suffering much, and carrying their cross 
after him. 

How can any one press to his breast Je- 
sus crucified, without being wounded by 
the nails and thorns with which he is trans- 
pierced ? 

tVe cannot better testify our love for 
this sacred Lover, than amidst tribulations; 



34 

for this life is such, that we must eat more 
wormwood than honey. 

Our nature is so admirable that it would 
experience nothing; painful ; but the re- 
pugnance that we feel does not proceed 
from a want of love, since, if we knew that 
our Savior would love us more when flay- 
ed alive, we would even do it ourselves, 
not without repugnance, but in spite of that 
repugnance. 

The faithful lover is not discouraged by 
the apprehension of the difficulties of a life 
crucified with our Lord, for he will be her 
strength. 

The adorable spouse of our souls, to ren- 
der us agreeable to his Eternal Father, re- 
conciled us with his majesty, by his labors, 
his blood and his death. 

Our Savior deserves to be served in sin- 
cerity of mind and purity of heart, since he 
has invited his elect thereto with so much 
sweetness and love. 

The perfect spouse p Christ, having 
consecrated to God her mind, her heart, and 
her body, should unceasingly offer to him 
sacrifices of praise. 



35 

That the sacrifices of the true spouses of 
Christ may be agreeable to the Divine Ma- 
jesty, they must be warmed and enkindled 
with th« fire of his love. 

Was it not with this same spirit that St. 
Ignatius of Antioch was animated, when 
he wished that virgins should be honared 
as priests of the^on of God ? Was not St. 
Ambrose of the same sentiment when he 
said that virgins were martyrs ? And did 
not St. Jerome, when describing the merit 
and beauty of virginity, call it the host of 
Jesus Chrirt ? 



CHAPTER VIII. 

On the vow of Poverty. 

The Gospel, that innocent thief, which 
formerly despoiled St. Francis of As- 
sisium, divested in like manner the pure 
heart of the great St. Francis de Sales, 
and inspired him with those holy thoughts, 
with which he animated his virtuous 



30 

daughters to the love of the most exact 
poverty and the most conformable to the 
laws of the gospel. '' The foxes have 
holes, and the birds of the air nests, but 
the Son of Man hath not where to lay his 
head." Matt. 8 c. 20 v. This divine Savior, 
to repair the disorders which the love of 
riches has occasioned on earth, practiced 
the most severe and absolute poverty 
which his ardent charity could invent, 
since he lived deprived of honors, riches, 
conveniences, and even the necessaries of 
life, having in his passion suffered himself 
to be despoiled of his gai^ments by the sol- 
diers, of his flesh and skin by the whips 
and lashes, and ol his life by death. It was 
love that effected all this ; and it is this same 
love, my dear daughters, says our amiable 
Father, which, entering your souls, cau- 
ses you happily to die to yourselves and 
to live to God alone, and which obliges you to 
a poverty so despoiled of all things, that you 
reserve only God for your portion, with this 
assurance that being entirely consecrated to 
him and his service he will furnish } ou with 
all that will be necessary for your pre- 



37 

servation. When he will see you di- 
vested of all exterior ^v;<is5 of relations, 
friends, and reputation, desiring no other 
honor than that of the congregation, which 
consists in seeking the glory of God in all 
things, and no other esteem than that of your 
communities, which is to give edification 
to your neighbor, then he will abundantly 
pour forth his graces into your hearts and 
will make you experience that whoever 
perfectly abandons herself to God will 
never want. Cultivate then, with a careful 
perseverance this entire dependence on 
his adorable providence, which should con- 
firm you in the perfect purity and naked- 
ness of the spouses of Jesus Christ. Bless- 
ed are the naked, for our Lord will be 
their clothing, their riches, their kingdom, 
and their beatitude. St. Gregory of Nazi- 
anzen spoke in the same manner of those 
who regulate their lives according to the 
rules of the gospel. Their life, said this 
great theologian, displays riches in indi- 
gence, possession in pilgrimage, glory in 
contempt, patience in infirmity, a happy 
progeny of spiritual children in a state of 



38 

eelibacy ; they find delights in contemning 
the pleasures of life ; they seek heaven in 
humility ; they possess nothing to render 
themselves proprietors of it ; in the flesh 
they live above the laws of the flesh ; God 
is their portion and inheritance , for the 
hope of a great kingdom they suffer the 
disgraces of indigence, and in the incon- 
veniences of poverty, they establish their 
crowns. 

Reflections and maxims of St. Francis ou 
the preceding subject. 

Serving faithfully our Lord we experi- 
ence that the sole contentment of having 
quitted all for him, is better than a thousand 
worlds. 

Human prudence saySy ^' blessed are the 
rich ;" but Jesus Christ says, " woe to you 
who are rich, who have your consolation 
here, for you shall weep." 

She who seeks her conveniences, her 
pleasures, her consolations, and her own 
will, cannot call herself poor, since Jesus 
Christ has said, "he who does not renounce- 
all he possesses cannot be my disciple." 



39 

If we esteem poverty, we should culti- 
vate it; amorously suffering contempt and 
want. 

Those religious persons who use the 
words mine and thine, are very far from 
the perfect spirit of evangelical poverty, 
which does not seek its own interest : and 
also from the sweet confidence which the 
children of God should have in his amorous 
providence. 

I am content, said the Apostle, with what 
God has placed in my hands. To be con- 
tent with little is to imitate the nature of 
the angels, who have need of nothing ; to 
return in some manner to a state of inno- 
cence ; to enjoy the liberty of our first pa- 
rents ; and to engage the sovereign bounty 
of God to pour forth abundantly his bene- 
fits into a generous heart, which despoils 
itself of creatures to be united to him alone, 
and which desires no other possessions 
than the solid treasures of his grace and 
love. 



40 



CHAPTER IX. 

On the vow of Obedience. 

It was the opinion of St. Chrysostom 
that David was more deserving of praise 
when he came out of the cavern, having 
spared the life of Saul, his cruel enemy, 
than when he overthrew Goliah. It is some- 
thing to vanquish an enemy, but much more 
to overcome one's self ; this last victory com- 
pletes the glory of a combatant, its spoils 
are richer, its victim more illustrious, and 
its trophies more glorious. Man found his 
destruction in rebellion, and will find his 
crown in submission; the moment he threw 
off the yoke of the obedience which he 
owed his Creator, he lost the empire which 
he had over creatures, and felt the revolt 
of all his powers. " Thou wouldst not 
obey thy master, says St. Augustine, and 
thy slave shall give the law to thee." What 
can he more just, says St. Bernard, than this 
law of retaliation between God and man ; 



41 

that the sinner should feel a domestic sedi- 
tion within him, which disputes his right 
and authority, since he has made war with 
the author of life. The great St. Francis 
de Sales, animated w^ith the same spirit as 
the Fathers of the Church, says to his dear 
daughters: '' Remember that the scripture 
assures us that the obedient man shall re- 
count ^ctories. " 

You nave, my dear daughters, many visi- 
ble enemies ; to be victorious, you must 
establish your obedience in a perfect abne- 
gation of your own will, that you may hap- 
pily vanquish here on earth, to triumph 
hereafter gloriously in heaven and recount 
your victories to our Lord. Often reflect 
that you are christians, not to perform 
your own will, but that of Him who has 
adopted you for his eternal coheirs. By a 
holy submission, unite your hearts to that 
of our Savior, which, being engrafted on 
the divinity, will form the root of the tree 
of which you will be the branches, and 
your amorous obediences the fruits.— 
Renounce the pretended right of judging 
and deciding what seems best to you, leav- 



42 

ing the entire care of all to him, who should 
judge for you, and let him desire of you 
whatsoever he pleases. True obedience, 
says St. Gregory, discerns neither the pre- 
cept nor the motive of the law ; and he 
knows not how to judge, who knows well 
how to obey. 

-^ Obey then generously, that you may live 
in him who created you, and for whom you 
were baptised and elevated to the sublime 
dignity of spouses of Jesus Christ ; let it 
be known, in your obedience, that it is not 
for the creature that you submit to the 
creature, but for the love of the Creator, 
whom you view in the creature. Place 
all your affections in the hands of God, that 
they be formed, modelled and fashi ned 
according to his pleasure: in this point 
consists that perfect obedience, which has 
no need of being excited by threats, pro- 
mises, laws or commandments ; for it pre- 
vents all this by submitting to God, for God, 
solely on account of his goodness, which de- 
sires that all wills be submissive to him and 
to whomsoever he pleases. It is for this rea- 
son your congregation, (where every one 



43 

renounces her own will, and where there 
exists but one common will, which reigns 
universally, animates and governs all hearts 
and minds,) bears this device and honora- 
ble name. The will of God in her. " Vo^ 
luntas Dei in ilia. 

Wherefore, the will of our Lord, and 
that of those who hold his place being only 
one and the same will, he lives and reigns 
by it in you, and causes you to live and 
subsist in him, so that you may say boldly : 
" Lord JesT^s, having offered thee all that 
we have, we now immolate to thee all that 
we are ; binding our liberty on the altar 
€)f the cross that it may be an agreeable holo- 
saustof thy good pleasure to die and be con* 
sumed in an exact obedience by the sword 
and fire of thy divine love." 

This is the sovereign degree of perfec- 
tion, to which this great Founder of the 
Visitation invited those souls who had the 
happiness of living under his direction. 
He required of them a blind obedience? 
like to that of St. Paul, in the moment of his 
conversion : — '' Lord what wilt thou that I 
do ? " He desired that his daughters should 



44 

execute the will of God, before they had 
heard it, or at least before they had ex- 
amined it; and as St. Augustin speaks, he 
wished that the soul, faithful to the sacred 
duties of holy obedience, should have eyes 
like those of the chaste dove in the canti- 
cles, moistened and washed in milk, which 
St. Gregory of Nice, considers as a liquid 
which does not reflect the shadow of any 
object, and which represents to us^ the pre- 
cious obscurity of a pure soul, concealed 
under the veil of faith, and the darkness 
of the law, when she obeys blindly with- 
out seeing or knowing any thing but Him 
who commands. 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis de 
Sales on the same subject. 

The truly obedient soul often repeats 
these words, '^ Lord what wilt thou have 
me to do.'^ '- "Teach me to do thy will, for 
thou art my God." 

Let the divine will be the star on which 
you fix your eyes during the navigation of 
this mortal life, and yovi will happily ar- 
rive at the port of a blessed eternity. 



45 

The obedient soul regards not the per- 
son who commands her, but God, by whose 
power she is commanded. 

We must not be surprised at the difficul- 
ties we experience in the acquisition of 
perfect submission, for what can be had 
that is precious without trouble ? 

The devil cares not for macerations of 
the body, provided you do your own will ; 
he fears not austerity, but obedience. 

A fast performed by one's own will weak- 
ens the flesh, and strengthens self-love and 
self-judgment; and destroying the sin of 
the body, creates it in the heart with a vain 
self-esteem. 

One should come to religion only to be 
conducted to perfection by the most effica- 
cious means, which are those that he him- 
self has not chosen. 

The true servant of God executes faith- 
fully to-day what is desired of her ; to-mor- 
row she will do the same ; and thus she is 
always equally disposed, without being 
troubled at any thing. 

Obedience is the dear virtue of Jesus 
Christ, in which, by which, and for vvhich,^ 
he condescended to give his life. 



46 

Open then your heart, my dear sister^ 
says St. Ambrose^and let him enter, by the 
absolute empire which he has over hearts; 
but he will not have you use violence ; con- 
straint displeases him ; he loves the free- 
dom of a heart that gives itself to his ser- 
vice with an entire liberty. 



CHAPTER X. 



Of the prayer which God communicates to 
some chosen souls ^ and some instructions 
on the subject by the servant of God^ St. 
Francis de Sales. 

The prayer of the just, says St. Augustin, 
is the key of Paradise ; it ascends to heaven, 
and mercy descends to the earth. St. Chry- 
sostom remarks, that the prayer of the pro- 
phet Elias shut up the heavens, as it were 
with a key, to hinder the earth from re- 
ceiving their imluence, and after a time 
opened them again to cause the ric' est 
treasures of fertility to flow into the bosom 



of the earth, which a long drought h^d ren- 
dered barren. St. Peter Chrysologus had 
no less an opinion of it, when he said that 
prayer rendered Moses as powerful as a 
God, giving him an absolute empire over 
the elements. But it appears that the 
great servant of God, St. Francis de Sales, 
wishes to carry the effects of prayer even to 
the heart of God. He says that it unites tha 
soul to her God in so close a union, that it is 
almost impossible for any thing to separate 
these blessed lovers. 

He thus expressed his ideas when in- 
structing some souls who lived under his 
holy direction: "My soul melted with 
joy, says the spouse in the canticles, when 
my beloved spoke to me ; it is, says he, the 
greatest benefit for you ; it is your particu- 
lar inheritance. I mean the faithful and 
amorous presence of your divine spouse, 
which produces in your hearts a union 
with him so intimate, so naked, so simple, 
so sweet, and so perfect, that nothing can 
be added to it ; and it is this which forms 
your prayer, and which those experience 
whose hearts are touched in a lively man- 



48 

ner by his celestial love ; forgetting every 
thing else, they are capable of being filled 
and occupied with this faithful friend, their 
divine all, and of receiving lights to discern 
his holy will, with strength to embrace 
whatever is most agreeable to him in the 
practice of solid virtues. 

This amorous and naked simplicity ren- 
ders you, in some manner, conformable to 
the most pure and simple spirit of the Di- 
vine Majesty ; and this most faithful and 
watchful abnegation fastens you to the 
cross with Jesus Christ. 

Happy those who faithfully follow this 
way, which is to love and suffer, simply 
abandoning themselves to the will of divine 
Providence, as a child in the arms of its 
mother, seeking God by a pure and fami- 
liar conversation with his bounty, without 
listening to the industries of the human 
mind, which cause us to walk in our own 
ways, rather than in those of God ; for when 
it pleases him to operate in a soul, he ren- 
ders her wise in a short time, impressing 
her with the truths which he wishes her 
to know, with lights so sublime that she 



40 

becomes more enlightened than if she had 
been taught by many discourses and con- 
siderations. This manner is very secret ; 
nothing is said between God and the soul, 
except heart to heart, by a communication 
unknown to all but those who practice it ; 
they speak not only by the tongue, but by the 
eyes, by sighs, and by the countenance ; si- 
lence holds the place of speech ; the sacred 
Lover opens the heart and pours into it his 
sweetnesses so that the soul, filled with love, 
exclaims : '' 1 have found him whom I love, 
I hold him fast, and will not quit him ; " and 
melting with joy, flows, as it were, into the 
Divinity, not only uniting, but even incor- 
porating herself with it ; and thus dying to 
herself, she has no other life than one with 
her Beloved, who collects all the powers of 
her soul into the bosom of his sweetness, 
pressing her on his sacred breast and nsak- 
ing her taste the milk of his suavity, which 
causes her generously to exclaim : '' Yes 
Lord I am all thine without reserve." Ah ! 
draw me more and more into thy sacred 
heart, consume me, with thy love, and let 
me remain for ever absorbed in thy un- 
4 



50 

speakable sweetness." But only pure and 
detached souls can usefully make this 
prayer, and we must not attempt it of our- 
selves, nor must we seek curiosities, eleva- 
tions, suspensions, and supereminences, 
which are more proper to excite the ad- 
miration of others, than to sanctify our 
hearts, and which are contrary to that spirit 
of lowliness and littleness which your in- 
stitute professes, and which desires that 
your lives be hidden with Jesus Christ in 
God. It is to the garden of holy prayer, that 
the divine Lover invites his faithful spouses. 
I have gathered, says he, my myrrh and 
my perfumes, joining suffering to suffer- 
ings, merits tanierits, treasures to trea- 
sures, to enrich them. 1 have eaten my 
honeycomb with my honey, living in them 
my new life. '^ I mingle my wine with the 
milk of my consolations, to rejoice and in- 
ebriate them with my presence." This 
holy inebriation transforms us in such a 
manner, that we live more in God than in 
ourselves ; placing him on our heart as a 
standard of love under which all our affec- 
tions range themselves, and on our arm as 



51 

a sword of dilection, with which we per- 
form exploits of virtue ; these will enable 
us to lead a supernatural life, elevated 
above the senses, and which causes us to 
say, in imitation of our Beloved, who never 
lost the beatific vision either on the cross 
or elsewhere : '^ I am in repose, having re- 
mitted all my cares into the hands of God, 
but my heart watches over all my actions 
for the love of him." 

Oh ! holy inebriation, which in the sa- 
cred commerce of prayer transports a soul 
into the cellars of divine love, how desira- 
ble thou art ! since thou art the chaste de- 
light, the treasure and solid joy of a pure 
arid faithful heart ! '^ Drink and be inebriat- 
ed, my beloved," says the Spouse in the 
canticles ; but with that pure inebriation 
which, according to St. Ambrose, produces 
sobriety and sanctity, not debauchery ; and 
which inspires joy, or, as St. Bernard ob- 
serves, plunges a soul into the ocean of 
truth, and not in the vapors of a beverage 
that only delights the senses ; which makes 
an innocent heart feel the chaste raptures 
of her God, whom alone she loves and not 



52 

the heat of a wine that obscures reason and 
destroys the life of grace. 



CHAPTER XI. 



other instructions concerning the practice 
of prayer. 

Prayer has forces which triumph over 
those of nature, and which overcome the 
resistance of all the elements, since, in the 
language of St. Chrysologus, we may say 
that it enters into j)artnership with the al- 
mighty power of a God. Moses, for the 
glory of his triumphs, made use of the 
principal works of the universe by the 
strength of prayer, as the great Bishop of 
Ravenna remarks ; and the Bishop of Ge- 
neva speaks of it in these terms : Think 
not, my daughters, that the practice of 
prayer is a work (»f the human mind ; it is 
a particular gift of the Holy-Ghost, who 
elevates the powers of the soul far above 



53 

their natural strength, to unite them to God 
by sentiments and communications which 
all the discourse and wisdom of men could 
never effect without him. The ways by 
which he conducts the saints in this ex- 
ercise, ( which is the most divine employ- 
ment of a reasonable creature,) are won- 
derful in their diversity, and they should 
all be respected, since they conduct to God, 
and under the guidance of a God, but we 
must not endeavor to follow them all, nor 
even make choice of any of ourselves ; the 
essential point is to recognize the grace 
imparted to us, and to be faithful to it. 

Now to tell you in few words what I 
have known by long experience, regard- 
ing the manner or kind of prayer which is 
the most common among you and the most 
conformable to your spirit, it appears to 
me that God conducts almost all the daugh- 
ters of the Visitation to the prayer of a sim- 
ple unity, an unique simplicity of at- 
tention to his presence, and an entire aban- 
donment of themselves to his holy will and 
to the care of his Divine Providence, which 
I call th^ prayer of a simple remijision of 



5i 

the soul in God, which is so profitable and 
salutary for you, that, I assure you, it 
comprehends all that you could wish to 
glorify God according to the spirit of your 
institute. 

For I have frequently told you, and I 
cannot repeat it too often, you must seek 
God in the simplicity of your hearts, treat- 
ing of the mysteries of God with God him- 
self by a familiar conversation with his di- 
vine bounty, accompanied with a great re- 
spect for his holy presence. This, how- 
ever, should not prevent those who are 
only commencing a religious life, and who 
have not as yet acquired a great facility in 
conversing with God, from making use of 
considerations to engrave on their minds 
the truths of faith, of which they have but 
faint ideas in the beginning. 

Without doubt it is important that they 
make these considerations, and occupy their 
minds sweetly on the life and sufferings of 
Jesus Christ, to draw thence a holy imita- 
tion, gradually accustoming themselves to 
treat with him heart to heart, not by rea- 
soning and argument, but by a simple atteii- 



55 

tion to what he performs in the mystery 
which they are considering, and by interior 
words of love, abandonment, compunction 
resignation, &c. according to the attraction 
they feel, without violence, effort, or noise, 
as if they wished to insinuate them gently 
into the sacred heart of this divine Spouse, 
so as to be heard by him alone. But care 
must be taken that, as they advance in pray- 
er, they simplify these acts more and more, 
entertaining themselves affectionately with 
God and withdrawing as much as possible 
from sensible objects to unite themselves 
more closely to him, and to become more 
capable of receiving the impressions of his 
Holy Spirit. And as it often happens that 
God exercises souls whom he prepares and 
disposes to an excellent degree of prayer, 
by great aridities and desolations of mind, 
which continue as long as his Infinite Wis- 
dom judges proper, they must not be as- 
tonished to find themselves in this state, or 
eease to make interior acts, which, though 
formed without delight or sentiment, will 
not be without profit. They should hold 
it for a certain maxim^ that the prayer of 



56 

patience and submission to the good plea- 
sure of God, is not less agreeable to his 
bounty than that of the sweetest enjoy- 
ment ; they have only to keep themselves 
simply in his presence, as a slave before 
his Lord, or as a child at the feet of its fa- 
ther, contenting themselves with produc- 
ing, from time to time, acts of confidence, 
love, fidelity, and, above all, of a generous 
desire of correcting their defects, without 
noticing whether these interior acts are ac- 
cording to their taste or not, provided they 
are pleasing and acceptable to God. Now 
if they will remain constant in this prac- 
tice, and be faithful in the exercise of vir- 
tue, which is the true fruit of a good pray- 
er, they may rest assured that they will 
not remain there ; for the prayer of all the 
daughters of the Visitation, as I have alrea- 
dy said, generally terminates in this unique 
simplicity and repose in the presence of 
God : and though there are many degrees 
in this state, and some possess it in a more 
eminent manner than others, yet they all 
attain it almost without perceiving it until 
they have arrived there. The important 



57 

point consists in being faithful to the at- 
traction of the Holy Spirit, not anticipating 
it, but waiting with humility for the bless- 
ed moment which our Lord has destined 
to introduce you into this happiness. 

Confide in God, my dear daughters ; suf- 
fer yourselves to be governed by him, and 
be assured that whatever he permits is 
most advantageous for you. When once 
you will have entered this sweet repose, 
( whilst others who have the happiness of 
being admitted to the table of the Son of 
God are employed in tasting the various 
dishes which are served up,) he will per- 
mit you to rest on his sacred breast by a 
simple confidence, and an amorous remis- 
sion of your affections, desires, and of all 
that you are or possess. Never abandon 
this kind of prayer, whatever may be said 
to you, for it is so truly yours, that if any 
among you be induced to quit it, they ap- 
pear to leave their centre, losing their 
liberty of spirit, and finding themsel es in 
a certain constraint which deprives them 
of peace, and greatly retards their advance- 
ment in perfection. 



m 

Finally, as this state is extremely elevat- 
ed, it demands of you great perfection ; I 
mean, an extreme dependence on the will 
of God, a profound submission to his de- 
crees, and a most rare and exquisite puri- 
ty of heart. In all things you should pay 
a simple attention to the will and good 
pleasure of God, without reflecting on 
the past, present, or future ; without see- 
ing, or wishing losee, what you have to do, 
or the conduct of others towards you. You 
should, if possible, forget all things, even 
yourselves, to remember only God, and to 
keep yourselves united to his bounty, in 
all that happens to you from moment to 
moment, and this very simply, equally re- 
ceiving and cherishing all the effects o\ his 
grace in you ; sacrificing and abandoning 
yourselves without reserve to the mercy of 
his love; uniting yourselves to his holy 
will in the supreme point of your mind, 
and happily, losing yourselves in him, if 
J may say so, to find all in him alone, who 
is your only and sovereign good. Happy 
the soul who will persevere in this holy 
exercise with an inviolable fidelity, nqU 



59 

withstanding all the difficulties and obsta- 
cles which oppose her progress in virtue, 
for she will infallibly find peace in the 
midst of war, rest in labor, Jesus in the 
cross, and in her own annihilation this only 
good, which constitutes the sovereign 
beatitude of all the saints. 

In fine, prayer opens tlie treasures of 
heaven, disposes of its riches, disarms its 
just indignation, and makes its way to the 
throne of God. He who created Moses, 
says St. Bernard, asked leave of him to 
strike his enemies : You might say that the 
rod of a God justly irritated, depended on 
that of his creature. A Jonas in the whale's 
belly, the three children in the fiery fur- 
nace, a Daniel in the lions' den, a thief on 
the cross, by the means of prayer, says St. 
Jerome, find their conquests in the midst of 
pains. Prayer obtains more from God 
than it asks. Anna wished for a son, and 
she obtained a prophet: Zachary desired 
only the use of his speech, after he had 
become dumb, and God gave him a tongue 
capable of singing his praises in canticles, 
and of pronouncing the oracles of heaven; 



a prodigal desired only the bread of a mer- 
cenary, and he found the caresses of a 
father, and the delights of an agreeable 
festival. Jacob is satisfied that his Joseph 
lives, and God shows him his son amid the 
grandeurs of an Egyptian court, and in the 
pomp of sovereign authority ; because, as 
St. Chrysostom observes, the liberality of 
a God far surpasses all that our prayers are 
capable of demanding. This is the happy 
portion of the holy order of the religious of 
the Visitation. Humility forms the precious 
character of this Institute, and it is humility 
that constitutes the vehicle of prayer. The 
prayer of the humble, says Ecclesiasticus, 
penetrates the clouds, attracts the abundant 
graces of God on the daughters of the holy 
Bishop of Geneva, and imparts to them the 
advantage of making great progress in the 
practice of prayer. 

Reflections and Maxims of St, Francis de 
Sales ^ on the same subject. 
Blessed is the soul who in prayer fol- 
lows the attractions of God, and faithfully 
©beys the guidance of his divine Spirit. 



61 

True sweetness is found in nourishing 
the heart with the love of God and in con- 
versing with him, without whom our hearts 
are without life, and our lives without hap- 
piness. 

The more tranquil and simple our pray- 
er is, being made in the very point of the 
mind, the more fruitful it is. 
^ The true repose of the soul in prayer is 
to see God, to desire God, and to taste God. 

The grace of prayer is not acquired by 
any effort of the mind, but by a most hum- 
ble and faithful perseverance. 

God does not demand splendor, but ar- 
dor of prayer, says St. Bernard ; if prayer 
be languishing, its progress is retarded; 
but if animated with fervor and flames of 
love, it penetrates heaven, and never re- 
turns empty handed, but always loaded 
with spoils, palms, and conquests. 



AN EPISTLE 

OF THE 

Venerable Mother de Chantal to the Reverend Father Don 
John of St. Francis, of the order of mendicant Friars, 
wherein she admirably describes the spirit of her blessed 
Father St. Francis de Sales. 

Alas! Reverend Father, you command 
me to do a thing which is far above my 
capacity ; God, however, has given me a 
greater knowledge of my Reverend Father 
than my unworthiness deserves, and par- 
ticularly since his death he has favored 
me with it ; for while the object was pre- 
sent, the admiration and satisfaction which 
I felt, dazzled me a little ; at least, it ap- 
pears so to me. But 1 confess with all 
simplicity to your paternal heart, that I am 
incapable of expressing myself on the sub- 
ject; nevertheless in obedience to your Re- 
verence, and in consideration of the love 
and respect which I owe the authority by 
which you command me, I proceed in all 
simplicity to write in the presence of God 
what has come to my knowledge concern- 
ing him. In the first place, my dearest 



63 

Father, I will tell you that I discovered in 
our amiable Saint, the gift of a most per- 
fect faith, which was accompanied with 
great light and certainty, joined to an ex- 
treme pleasure and suavity ; he has made 
many admirable discourses to me on this 
subject, and he once told me that God had 
favored him with so much light and know- 
ledge to penetrate the mysteries of our holy 
faith, that he thought he was well possess- 
ed of the meaning and intention of the 
Church with regard to what she teaches 
her children. His life and works render 
sufficient testimony of this. God had shed in 
the centre of this most holy soul, or to use 
his own expression, in the very poirit or 
summit of his mind, so superior a light, 
that with one single glance he saw the 
truths of faith and their excellence, which 
caused him great ardor, ecstacies and trans- 
ports, and he submitted to the truths pro- 
posed to him by a simple acquiescence and 
sentiment of his v/ill. 

He called the place in which these lights 
were diffused, the sanctuary of God, into 
which nothing can enter, except the soul 



64 

alone with her God : this was the place of 
his retreat, and his most ordinary resi- 
dence: notwithstanding his continual ex- 
terior occupations, he kept his mind as 
much as possible in this interior solitude. 
I never saw this blessed Father aspire or 
breathe except with the sole desire of liv- 
ing according to the truths of faith and the 
rules of the gospel: this is manifest in his 
memoirs. He said that the best manner 
of serving God, is to follow him in the very 
point of the soul, with no other support or 
consolation, sentiirentor light, than that of 
simple and naked faith ; therefore he loved 
interior desolations, aridities and abandon- 
ments. He told me once that he did not 
take notice whether he was in consolation 
or desolation, that when our Lord impart- 
ed good sentiments to him, he received 
them with simplicity, and when they were 
not given he did not think of it. But he 
was ordinarily favored with great interior 
sweetness, and this was frequently ob- 
served in him ; he formed good thoughts of 
every thing, turning all to the profit of his 
souL But he received these lights espe- 



65 

eially while preparing his sermons, which 
he generally did walking, and he told me 
that he made a prayer of his study, and 
came from it very much enlightened and 
inflamed. Some years ago he told me he 
felt no sensible pleasure in prayer, and 
that what God operated in him, was by 
lights and insensible eflects, which he in- 
fused into the intellectual part of his soul, 
the inferior part having no share therein. 
Commonly these were divine emanations 
and sentiments of the most simple unity, 
which he received simply with a most pro- 
found reverence and humility ; for his me- 
thod was to keep himself very humble, 
little and lowly, in the presence of God, 
with a singular respect and confidence, as 
a child of love. He wrote to me often, and 
desired me when I should see him, to ask 
him what God had communicated to him 
in prayer, and when I did so, he answered 
me thus : " These are things so nice,. so sim- 
ple, and so delicate, that we cannot tell 
them when they have passed ; the effects 
alone remain in the soul.'' 



m 

Several years before his death he scarce^ 
ly had any time for mental prayer on ac- 
count of a multiplicity of affairs, and one 
day I asked him if he had made it, " No, 
said he, but I have done that which is as 
Avell," meaning, that he kept himself al- 
ways united with God ; and he said that, 
in this mortal life, we must make a 
prayer of our w^ork and actions ; and truly 
he did so. From what has already been 
said, it is easy to imagine that this great 
Saint was not satisfied with the enjoyment 
of the delicious union of his soul with God 
only during prayer; no, certainly, for he 
loved equally the divine will on all occa- 
sions; and truly I think that, during the 
last years of his precious life, he attained 
so great a purity that he neither desired^ 
saw, nor loved, but God alone in all things. 

He was often seen entirely absorbed in 
him^ and he said there was nothing in the 
world which could give him any satisfac- 
tion but God ; so that we may truly say, it 
was no longer he who lived, but Jesus 
Christ who lived in him. This general love 
of the will of God was so much the more 



67 

pure and excellent, as this holy soul was 
not liable to change or to be deceived, on 
account of the superior light which God 
diffused in his soul, by means of which he 
saw the first motions of self-love, and faith- 
fully stifled them to unite himself more in- 
timately to him. He told me sometimes 
that in the midst of his greatest afflictions, 
he felt a hundred times more sweetness 
than usual; for by means of this intimate 
union, the most bitter things were render- 
ed savory to him. But if your Reverence 
desires to see clearly the state of his most 
pure soul on this point, be pleased to read 
the three or four last chapters in the ninth 
book of the Treatise on the Love of God. 
He animated all his actions with the sole 
motive of pleasing God : and truly, as he 
says in that sacred book, he asked for no- 
thing, either in heaven or on earth, except 
to see the will of God accomplished. Not 
unfrequently did he pronounce these words 
of David, with an ecstatic fervor : " Oh 
Lord ! what is there for me in heaven, and 
what could I desire on earth, except thy* 
self; thou art my portion and inheritance 



68 



lor ever." All that was not God, was no- 
thing to him. From this perfect union pro- 
ceeded tliose eminent virtues and that uni- 
versal indifference Avhich every one com- 
monly observed in him ; and I cannot read 
those chapters in the Treatise on the Love 
of God, where he treats of this subject, 
without discerning that he practiced, when 
occasions were offered, this lesson so little 
known and yet so excellent : ^' Ask nothings 
desire nothing, refuse nothing ;" which 
could only proceed from a soul entirely in- 
different and dead to itself. His equality 
of mind was inexpressible ; for on no oc- 
casion was it ever observed to be altered, 
notwithstanding the rude treatment he 
sometimes met with ; but of this his me- 
moirs bear sufEcient testimony. This 
equality was not the result of indifference 
and insensibility ; on the contrary, his feel- 
ings were most delicate and lively, par- 
ticularly when he saw God offended and 
his neighbor oppressed. On these occa- 
sions he was seen to be silent, and to with- 
draw himself in God, remaining there in 
composure; not however omitting to ap- 



69 

ply a prompt remedy to the evil, for he was 
the ref'ige, the succor, and the support of 
all. Was not the peace of his heart divine 
and altogether unchangeable, being estab- 
lished in a perfect mortification of his pas- 
sions, and in a total abandonment of his 
soul into the hands of God ? Once when at 
Lyons, he said tome: ^' What is there 
that could disturb my peace ? I assure you 
that though every thing should be in con- 
fusion, I would not be troubled, for what 
is the whole world in comparison with the 
peace of my heart." It appears to me that 
this stability proceeded from his attentive 
and lively faith, for he considered all 
events, great and small, as coming from di- 
vine Providence, in whom he reposed with 
more tranquillity than an only child on the 
bosom of its mother. He told me that our 
Lord had taught him this lesson from his 
youth, and that were he to be born again, 
he would contemn human prudence more 
than ever, and would leave himself entire- 
ly to the guidance of Almighty God; he 
had very great lights on this subject, and 
pr(lentlj conducted to it those souls whom 



70 

he counseled and governed. With regard 
to the affairs which he undertook, and 
which God committed to his care, he always 
managed and conducted them under the 
shelter of this supreme government, and 
never was he more assured of success, or 
more content amid diflSculties, than when 
he had no other support. When, accord- 
ing to human prudence, he foresaw that it 
was impossible for him to execute a design, 
which God had committed to him, his con- 
fidence was so firm that nothing was able 
to lessen it, and this caused him to live 
without any anxiety. I observed it when 
he had determined to form our congrega- 
tion ; he said, " I see no means for that es- 
tablishment, but I am confident that God 
will effect it." This was verified within a 
much shorter time than he had imagined. 
Many years ago he was assailed with a vio- 
lent emotion which exercised him very 
much, and he wrote to me, saying : ^' I am 
very much tormented : it seems to me that 
I have not sufficient strength to resist, and 
that were the occasion to present itself, I 
should yield; however, the weaker I feel 



n 

the more confidence I place in God, and I 
am sure that were these objects present, I 
should be invested with virtue and strength 
from him, and devour my enemies as lamb- 
kins." Our Saint was not exempt from the 
sentiments and emotions of the passions, 
nor did he wish that anyone should desire 
to be freed from them : he made no account 
of them except to subdue them, in which 
he delighted ; he said that they helped us 
to practice the most excellent virtues and 
to establish them solidly in the soul : but 
- truly he had so absolute an authority over 
his passions, that they obeyed him as slaves ; 
and towards the end of his life he appear- 
ed to have none. My dear Father, he was 
the most hardy, generous, and powerfu 
soul, in supporting charges and labors, and 
in executing those enterprises with which 
God inspired him ; he was never discourag- 
ed ; and he said that, w^hen our Lord com^ 
mits an affair to us, we must not abandon 
it, but be courageous in overcoming every 
difficulty. Certainly, my dear Father, it 
required great strength of mind to perse- 
vere in virtue as our Saint did. Was he 



n 

ever seen to neglect a single point of mo- 
desty ? When was he ever known to be- 
tray the least impatience or want of meek- 
ness towards his neighbor ? 

His heart was perfectly innocent, entire- 
ly free from all malice and bitterness ; his 
spirit meek, humble, gracious, and affable. 
To this was added an excellence and so- 
lidity of prudence and wisdom, both natural 
and supernatural, that God had infused 
into his mind, which was one of the most 
elear, comprehensive, and enlightened. — 
Truly our Lord seemed to have forgotten^ 
nothing to perfect this work, which his all 
powerful and merciful hand had formed. 
In fine, the divine bovmty had instilled into 
this holy soul a most perfect charity ; and 
as charity ( according to his own observa- 
tion ) never enters the soul without at- 
tracting all other virtues, so they were all 
placed and arranged in his heart in a most 
admirable order; each held there the rank 
and authority which belonged to it ; none 
undertook any thing without the concur^ 
rence of the whole ; for he clearly saw 
what was proper to each one and its de- 



73 

gree of perfection, and all produced there 
acts as occasions presented themselves, in 
proportion as charity urged him, and this 
gently, without show. He never appeared 
mysterious, nor performed such actions as 
might serve to excite the admiration of 
those who only regard the exterior appear- 
ance : there was no singularity in his be- 
havior, nor any of those showy virtues 
which dazzle the eyes of the beholder and 
are applauded by the vulgar. He kept 
himself in the common train, but in a man- 
ner so divine and celestial that, it seems to 
me, nothing in his life was more admirable. 
When he prayed, recited the office, or 
celebrated the divine Sacrifice, he appeared 
like an angel, on account of the great splen- 
dor that shone on his countenance ; nothing 
affected was observed in his motions ; he 
was scarcely ever seen to raise or shut his 
eyes, but he kept them modestly cast down, 
and made no other movements than those 
which were necessary ; and the profound 
interior tranquillity that he enjoyed, was 
truly visible in his sweet, grave and peace- 
ful countenance. 



74 

Whoever witnessed him in the perform- 
ance of his actions, was infallibly touch- 
ed, and particularly during the time of the 
holy consecration, for then he assumed a 
new splendor, which has been remarked 
thousands of times. He had a special love 
for the most adorable Sacrament ; it was 
his life and only strength. Oh God ! what 
ardent and tender devotion he had when he 
carried it during the processions. You 
might have beheld him as a luminous che- 
rub. When near this divine Sacrament he 
appeared filled with inexpressible ardor; 
but this, as well as his incomparable devo- 
tion to the Mother of God, has been spoken 
of elsewhere, and therefore I will not re- 
peat it here. Oh Jesus! how admirable an 
order was there in his holy soul — every 
thing was so well regulated, so calm ; and 
he was so singularly enlightened by God, 
that he saw the very least of his inclina- 
tions ; he possessed great penetration in 
what regarded the perfection of the spirit, 
discerning its most delicate and refined 
operations. This pure soul, possessing so 
much love and zeal, could never suffer the 



75 

smallest voluntary imperfection ; not that he 
did not commit some, but it was through 
surprise and infirmity; if he had an attach- 
ment to any thing, how small soever it 
might have been, I am ignorant of it : on 
the contrary our meek and humble Saint 
was purer than the sun and fairer than the 
snow in his actions and resolutions. In fine, 
he was purity, humility, simplicity, and 
unity of spirit with his God : it was delight- 
ful to hear him speak of God and perfec- 
tion ; he used terms so correct and intelligi- 
ble, that he made others clearly discern the 
most delicate and hidden things of the spir- 
itual life. 

He was not possessed of so penetrating a 
light for himself alone ; every one who has 
seen and known him, can bear testimony 
that God had communicated to him a spe- 
cial gift for the conduct of souls, and that 
he governed them with a dexterity quite 
celestial : he penetrated the depth of hearts, 
and saw clearly their condition, and by 
what impulse they were actuated ; and 
every one was convinced of his incompara- 
ble charity for souls, and that it was his de- 



76 

light to labor for tliem : he was indefatiga- 
ble in nig exertions until he restored them 
to peace, and put them in the way of sal- 
vation. With regard to those sinners whom 
he wished to convert, and whom he observ- 
ed to be as yet weak, what did he omit do- 
ing for them? He made himself a sinner 
with them, and so sensibly participated 
in their afflictions, that no one could con- 
ceal any thing from him. Now, in my 
opinion, it seems that a zeal for the sal- 
vation of souls was the predominant vir- 
tue of our beloved Father ; for it may 
be said, that he left the service of God 
for that of his neighbor. Good God! what 
tenderness, what forbearance, what mild- 
ness, what labor! He consumed his life in 
their service. I cannot omit mentioning in 
this place, a thing which is very remarka- 
ble; our Lord had truly regulated the 
charity of this holy soul ; for among the 
many souls whom he particularly loved^ 
( and they were an infinite number, ) he 
had a different degree of love for each of 
them; he loved all purely and perfectly, 
according to their rank, but not all equal- 



ly^, he remarked in every one what he 
thought most estimable, and gave it the 
place in his dilection according to its mea- 
sure of grace. He had an incomparable 
respect for his neighbor, because he con- 
sidered God in him, and he in God. As to 
his dignity, what honor and respect did he 
not bear it? His humility did not prevent 
him exercising the gravity, modesty, and 
reverence due to his quality of Bishop. 

My God ! dare 1 say it? it seems to me 
that my beloved Father was a living image 
in which the Son of God, our Lord, was 
represented ; for really the ardor and econo- 
my of this holy soul were entirely super- 
natural. I am not alone in this sentiment ; 
many persons have told me that, when they 
beheld this blessed man, they thought they 
saw our Lord on earth. 

I am, Reverend Father, your most hum- 
ble, obebient,and unworthy daughter, and 
servant in our Lord. 

Sister Jane Francis Fremiot, 
Of the Visitation of the B. V. M.— 

From our Monastery of Annecy. 



7§ 



APPROBATION. 

I, the undersigned, Priest and Doctor in 
Theology, of the Faculty of Paris, Grand 
Vicar and Official of Rouen, have read the 
book entitled, '^An abridgment of the in- 
terior Spirit of the daughters of the Visita'* 
tion of the B. V. Mary^^^ in which I have 
observed nothing contrary to faith and the 
rules of a true and solid piety. Signed at 
Rouen, this first day of June, one thousand 
six hundred and eighty-six. 

CLEMENT, 



79 



The spirit of the religious Sisters of the 
Visitation of the blessed Virgin Mary. 



Extracts from the writings of St, Francis dt SaUi, 
and those cf Mother de Chantal. 

CHAPTER I. 

LIVE t JESUS. 

How a religious of the Visitation should 
regaled herself 
A Daughter of the Visitation is a person 
who withdraws herself from the embarrass- 
ments of the world to live entirely to God ; 
who abandons it to unite herself perfectly 
to Jesus Christ,^ by the mortification of her 
exterior senses, and still more by that of 
her interior passion ; to recall and reunite 
all her powers, dissipated by the multi- 
tude of objects, which the world formerly 
presented her, to employ them in future 
only in the service of her celestial Spouse, 



CHAPTER II. 

Her intention in r^etiring from the world. 
At her entrance into the monastery she 
bade adieu to all things, that she might de- 
vote herself entirely to God, seeking, in 
perfect simplicity of heart, a sovereign and 
simple unity with her Lord and her God. 

CHAPTER III. 

Her only affair. 
She renounced the world to forget it, and 
to be no longer remembered by it, that no- 
thing might divert her from her only af- 
fair, which is to tend to the perfection of 
divine love. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The obligations of her vows. 
The engagement of her vows imposes ob 
her a particular obligation to observe them 
with all the exactitude and sanctity pre- 
scribed by the constitutions; so that her 
chastity be sovereignly pure, her obedi- 
ence without reserve, and founded on a 



81 

perfect abnegation of her own will, and 
her poverty entire, by an interior as well 
as exterior detachment from all things, 

CHAPTER V. 

With what dispositions she shouldmake her 
profession^ and whom she ought to pro- 
pose to herself as her model therein. 
Her profession should be a sacrifice of 
holocaust, by the entire and perfect immola- 
tion which she should make of herself to 
the majesty of God ; and she ought to take 
for her model the oblation, which the 
Apostles made of themselves to God, by a 
perfect renunciation of all earthly things ; 
the ardent charity with which the martyrs 
sacrificed their lives, and that which has 
induced so many anchorets and holy vir- 
gins to consecrate themselves to the love 
and service of Jesus Christ. 

CHAPTER VI. 

How far her fervor and zeal should extend. 

She should have those great examj les 

constantly before her, to sustain her fideli- 



82 

ty and animate her fervor and zeal, which 
ought to be so ardent and so pure, that 
were it possible to surpass what the great- 
est saints have done, and did she know 
a more perfect manner of uniting herself 
to Jesus Christ, she should believe herself 
obliged to embrace it. 

CHAPTER VII. 

She should put no bounds to the perfectiont 
proposed to her. 

St. Francis de Sales did not wish to li- 
mit the perfection which he proposed to 
his daughters ; he desired that a religious 
of the Visitation should imitate ever the 
holy angels, living only in God and for 
God, by a full and entire consecration of 
her being and of all the powers of her soul 
to the Divine Majesty ; so that God may 
reig;n sovereignly and perfectly over her, 
and that she may be entirely subjected and 
devoted to him. 



83 

CHAPTER VIII. 

What the quality of a daughter of the Bless* 
ed Virgin demands. 
He desired that as a daughter of our 
blessed Lady, she should belong to God, as 
she did, to accomplish all his wills ; that 
she should quit all, and renounce every 
thing, even herself, by a perfect abandon- 
ment to divine Providence, to be able to 
say like the blessed Virgin, I am the ser- 
vant of the Lord ; and to be so entirely, 
constantly and perpetually, 

CHAPTER IX. 

To what the example of Jesus Christ cm- 
cified should lead her. 
Our amiable Father wished that she 
should consider herselt all her life as being 
by her profession established on Mount 
Calvary for the service of Jesus crucified > 
and that always having this divine model 
before her eyes she may continually cru- 
cify her senses, passions, inclinations, aver- 
sions and humors ; that thus her heart may 
no longer have any motion that does not 



84 

tend to unite her intimately to Jesus Christ, 
as this divine Saviour united himself to 
his Father, dying on the cross naked and 
destitute of all. A religious of the Visita- 
tion should never lose sight of him in this 
condition ; and should no longer allow her- 
self the liberty of using her heart, her eyes 
or her tongue, but for the service and by 
the impulse of the love of this crucified 
Spouse. 

CHAPTER X. 

How far her spirit of mortification should 
extend, 

. She is no longer permitted to follow the 
desires or inclinations of nature, since she 
should not live or breathe but for God ; all 
in her should be holy, and this interior dis- 
position ought to appear in her exterior, 
in her words and actions, and she must be 
so perfectly detached from all that is earth- 
ly that she even lose all relish and eager- 
ness for what the necessities of life oblige 
her to use ; and that through choice she be 
always ready to do without them, were it 



85 

possible, even so far that if these succors 
failed her, she should then consider herself 
as a true religious, who from the disposition 
of her heart, ought to cherish the want even 
of things that are necessary, and support 
it without complaint or murmur, regard- 
ing it as the true practice of evangelical 
poverty, which is an incomparable trea- 
sure, and which abandons all cares of to- 
morrow to divine Providence, who should 
be her only resource, and in whom a true 
daughter of the beloved Virgin should en- 
tirely confide. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Her love and affection for poverty. 

She must then love all that is poor, and 
let nothing appear either in herself, in her 
habits, or in any thing that is for her use, 
which savors not of simplicity and con- 
tempt of the world ; not procuring gildings 
and other similar ornaments, even in those 
parts of the house, that are destined to ex- 
cite piety, since if she has true devotion. 



86 

she will be much more touched by modes- 
ty and simplicity than by all that would 
betray, in the least, the luxury and pomp 
of the world. 

CHAPTER XII. 

What should be her simplicity and humility. 

A good religious has nothing so much 
to heart as this holy simplicty ; and she 
constantly remembers that all the glory of 
a daughter of the Visitation consists in 
having none, and all her grandeur in keep- 
ing herself in her littleness, since it is or- 
dained her by an express rule to perform 
all her actions in the spirit of humility, but 
of a humility sincere and profound, which 
excludes all research of self; this is the 
particular character of a daughter of the 
Visitation, and it is on this foundation St. 
Francis de Sales declares that she is called 
to the highest perfection that we can at- 
tain here below ; because her institute 
engages her to the practice of the most 
profound humility and the most perfect 
annihilation. 



87 



CHAPTER XIII. 



In what she ought more particularly to 
practice humility. 

Her principal care should be to abase 
and humble herself in every thing, with- 
out desiring to appear or excel, either in 
what relates to herself in particular or in 
what refers to the house in general ; keep- 
ing herself hidden in peace under the shade 
of her own abjection and baseness, wish- 
ing to appear but in this, or rather not 
wishing even to appear hef ein ; finding 
her repose and happiness in the annihila- 
tion of herself; not forgetting that she is of 
the last order in the church, and that being 
the least and the most useless servant in 
the house of God, she should love to be re- 
gaYded and treated conformably to what 
she is in effect. In fine, there must be no- 
thing in a daughter of the Visitation that 
bears not the character of self-annihilation ; 
since this is her true spirit, and the life and 
soul of her order. 



88 

CHAPTER Xiy. 

How she ought to regard every thing that 
tends to self annihilation. 
She should keep herself continually in 
this true and sincere humility of heart ; 
and when the world despises her, she 
should receive this contempt as a thing 
most suitable to her state, and as a pre- 
cious pledge of God's love towards her ; 
since he always regards, with a favorable 
eye, her who sincerely desires to be the 
object of the contempt of men ; humiliation 
willingly accepted is a most agreeable sa- 
crifice to him. 

CHAPTER XV. 

What constitutes the humility of a daugh- 
ter of the Visitation, 
Let not a daughter of the Visitation de^ 
sire to be loved or esteemed by men ; let 
her regard herself as the least of all, and 
very far from being pained when others 
are esteemed and praised, she should sin-* 
cerely rejoice ; let her desire only the com- 
mon good, and not her particular interest ; 



89 

let her yield without constraint to her 
equals, and even to her inferiors ; and let 
her even be glad to see herself blamed and 
what she does disapproved of, sincerely- 
condemning it herself, since there is al- 
ways too much imperfection in all that we 
do ; loving to be regarded as useless in the 
monastery, and to be employed therein 
only in things that are vile, low, and hu- 
miliating. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

How she ought to receive advice and cor- 
rections. 

This humble sentiment of herself should 
prevent her ever excusing herself either 
in great or small faults, and make her re- 
ceive in good part the admonitions which 
are given her, and rejoice when accused 
not only of her defects, but a so of things 
of which she does not feel herself guilty ; 
suffering it with a good heart, in imitation 
of Jesus Christ in the opprobriums and 
ignominies which he endured, and enter- 
ing into the spirit of that profound humili- 



90 

ty, which made him say by the mouth of 
the Prophet,/' I am a worm and no man, 
the reproach of men and the outcast of the 
people," In imitation of this great exam- 
ple, should not a religious seek to abase 
herself continually, and ought not her only 
study be humility and self-annihilation ? 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Whence proceeds the practice of the accusa- 
tion of faults. 

This spirit of annihilation was the rea- 
son why St. Francis de Sales established 
in his order the daily practice of the accu- 
sation of the faults and defects of his daugh- 
ters, which ought to be inviolably observ- 
ed : but which would be only illusion and 
hypocrisy, if each sister were not sincere- 
ly disposed to receive corrections, confu- 
sions, humiliations and other painful things, 
not by way of trials or tribulations sent 
by God, but as chastisements due on 
account of her sins, and as remedies ne- 
cessary to cure her pride. Far be it from 
them to desire, either in this or in any 



91 

other thing, those privileges which in some 
other orders are given to the ancient, and 
to which St. Francis de Sales had so great 
an aversion, that he would not have any 
rank among the religious of his congrega- 
tion except that which falls to them by lot, 
and which changes every year, as well as 
every thing they use, that they maybe at- 
tached to God alone. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Her attention to the presence of God, and 
what her exterior deportment should 
he. 

This detachment from all things is a 
wonderful help to keep her continually in 
the presence of God, and this practice 
should be one of the principal cares of a 
daughter of the Visitation. This perpetual 
attention to the eternal rule of all good, 
ought to regulate not only her mind and 
heart, but also her exterior, which should 
be humble, gentle, and modest, accompani- 
ed with a gravity becoming the spouses of 
Jesus Christ, but without affectation ; on 



92 

the contrary, she should preserve in all 
her actions a great simplicity, which ex- 
cludes every thing like show and the affect- 
ed manners of the children of the world. 
This modesty must appear even in the 
tone of her voice, which should not be loud 
or rude, and her looks ought* to be regulat- 
ed by a certain timidity, which induces her 
to keep her eyes modestly cast down as 
much as possible. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Hoic exact her observance of silence should 
be, and the fruit she should draw from it. 

THE EFFECTS OF SILENCE. 

Another great help to keep one's self 
in the presence of God, is the practice 
of silence, in Avhich a religious of the 
Visitation ought to be very exact, remem- 
bering that it was instituted, not only to 
avoid the faults occasioned by speaking, but 
also to preserve recollection by the re- 
trenchment of useless thoughts, which 
cause dissipation, and render her unfit for 



93 

conversing with her divine' Spouse, which 
she ought to do continually, to gain new 
strength and become more and more Capa- 
ble of laboring unceasingly in his divine 
service. A religious therefore should have 
a particular affection for silence, and be very 
careful in the observance of it, on account 
of the great advantages which she may 
thence draw It has always been strongly 
recommended by the founders of religious 
orders, of which it is the ornament and sup- 
port. It is the guardian of the heart and 
produces the spirit of prayer. In short its 
utility is so great, that to reform a monas- 
tery it is suflScient to establish silence 
therein ; and on the contrary, to destroy re- 
gularity, you have but to neglect the ob- 
servance of silence. 

CHAPTER XX. 

In what disposition a daughter of the Visi- 
tation should be with regard to the parlor^ 
andhovj she should conduct herself there. 

This love of silence should cause a 
daughter of the Visitation to frequent the 



94 

parlor as little as she can, and never to go 
thither except when necessary. When 
there she ought to remain as short a time 
as possible, and be more particular in re- 
trenching all useless words than in any 
other place. Let her also avoid long con- 
versations, even w^ith them that are spiritu- 
al, because many superfluous and useless 
words glide into them, which are always 
dangerous, and the least evil occasioned 
thereby is a loss of time. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Silence is to be observed even by the Su- 
perior. 

This retrenchment of all useless dis- 
course and unprofitable words is so impor- 
tant and so expressly recommended, that 
though the superior cannot avoid speaking 
more than the other sisters, yet she ought 
to serve them as a model on this point as 
well as on every other : and it is not per- 
mitted that any sister should speak to her 
during the hours of silence, except for ne- 
cessary purposes, for which the sisters can 



95 

have recourse to her at all times. Each 
one must regard and love her as a mother, 
and as the interpreter of the will of God in 
her regard. 

CHAPTER XXII^ 

The disposition of a daughter of the Visita- 
tion towards her superior. 

This disposition of a religious for her 
superior is the only thing that can animate 
and sustain obedience, w^hich without it 
would be very imperfect and defective : 
Wherefore a daughter of the Visitation 
should consider that it is God himself whom 
she obeys in the person of her superior. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

What should he her obedience^ and what 
conditions it should have. 

Obedience, to be perfect, requires the 
following conditions. We must obey care- 
fully^ without forgetting or neglecting 
what will have been commanded. We 
must obey promptly^ without any kind 



96 

t)f delay or hesitation. We must obey sitn- 
ply, without examining the reason of the 
command and without listening to any con- 
trary objections. We must ohey faithfully ^ 
without any self-seeking in w^hat we do 
through obedience. 

We must obey from the bottom of our 
heart J by a sincere submission of our judg- 
ment and will to that of our superior. In 
fine, as it is God whom we regard in them 
who have authority over us, we should 
obey equally any superior, since they are 
all the interpreters of the will of God, 
which should constitute the entire plea- 
sure and happiness of a true religious, be- 
cause the accomplishment of this ever 
adorable will comprises all christian rer- 
fection. A true daughter of the Visitation 
ought then willingly to undertake and suf- 
fer every thing at the least intimation of 
obedience. 

By this means, she will enter into the 
sentiment of that spiritual infancy somuch 
recommended by our Lord, which is the 
surest road to heaven, and the source and 
support of tranquillity of mind. 



m 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



How far the confidence of a d<mghter of 
the Visitation in her Superior should 
extend. 

It is not enough for a daughter of the 
Visitation to obey her superior ; she must 
also have for her all candor and conlfidence, 
in making known the dispositions of her 
heart with perfect sincerity and simplicity, 
as well as in receiving her advice with 
submission and docility. In recompense 
for our fidelity in considering God in our 
superior, and in paying her the obedience 
which has just been described, he will 
manifest himself through her advice ; she 
will be in this light as the organ of the 
holy Spirit. Therefore a daughter of the 
Visitation should not be less faithful in 
opening her heart to her superior, than in 
obeying her; and this practice is so impor- 
tant for the preservation of the spirit of the 
institute, that it will only be maintained in 
proportion to the fidelity with which this 
rule will be observed, 
7 



96 

CHAPTER XXV. 

What should be the motive of this candor 
and confidence. 
She ought to bear in mind that this prac- 
tice was not established merely that she 
might find consolation therein ; but also to 
strengthen her in virtue and to exercise 
her in humility. A true religious should 
receive the advice and remonstrance of her 
superior as suitable remedies for the cure 
of her spiritual maladies, and as necessary 
to preserve her from them for the future ; 
being persuaded that when she is either 
mortified or reprimanded, it is a mark of 
the love which her superior bears her, of 
the desire she has to preserve in her the 
true spirit of the institute and to conduct her 
to the height of religious perfection. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

By what means she can most advance to- 

wards perfection. 

As perfection is the end of all her 

exercises, her continual care should be to 

advance towards it by a perfect observance 



of her rules, and she should remember that 
to attain perfection, she must know little, 
think little, desire little, and speak little, 
hut do and suflfer much for God, 

CHAPTER 3rxvil. 

What means she should employ to combai 

and overcome negligence and sloth, 
"The best means to prevent and overcome 
all kinds of negligence and sloth, is to keep 
ourselves continually occupied, as much 
as our bodily strength will permit. A 
daughter of the Visitation should never be 
idle ; and even when in the parlor she 
<should have some kind of work. 

CHAPTER xxviri. 

How careful she shoidd be to employ her 
iime well^ and to avoid amusements arad 
plays. 

She who knows the value of time will 
never lose a moment of it, much less em- 
ploy it in pastimes and plays ; nothing be- 
ing more unworthy of the sanctity of the 
religious profession. Even those diver- 



10» 

sions which seem most innocent to worldly 
persons, are not becoming a religious of 
the blessed Virgin ; moreover, they are 
forbidden by an express rule, which has 
been confirmed by St. Francis de Sales^ 
who, when consulted on this subject by 
Mother de Chantal to know whether the 
sisters might play at dice and checkers, he 
answered that they must keep to the con- 
stitution, which prohibits all kinds of plays. 
We must then consider them all as abso- 
lutely forbidden, as also birds, lap-dogs^ 
and other such animals^ which only serve 
for amusement. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

What should constitute all her pleasure 
and joy. 

All her joy should be in God, and her de- 
light should consist in thinking of him and 
entertaining herself with him; he ought to 
be her sovereign desire and her only love, 
as he is her happiness and her life. 



loi 

CHAPTEH XXX, 

How far herforgetfulness and contempt cf 
the world should extend. 

Upon this principle, it is not even per- 
knitted her, wh<3n she is in conversation 
with seculars, to inquire about the things 
of the world to which she should be dead, 
and should she happen to speak of what 
passes therein, she ought not to consider 
Ais fault as light, since she could not corn* 
anitit but by some return of the heart to- 
wards the world, which should be for 
<3ver abandoned and forgotten by hen 
Should this defect glide into the g-enerality 
of the tiommuniiy , or should any particular 
religious be guilty of it, it must be advertis- 
«d, that it may be remedied, 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

How she ought to conduct herself when any 
secular enters the monastet^y. 

This disposition, in which a true reli- 
gious should be, with regard to the world 
and all that appertains to it, requires that 



KB 

if secular ladies of superior dignity enter 
the monastery, she should not, on that ac- 
count, observe less the silence of the heart 
and tongue, which ought not to be inter- 
rupted without an express order of obe- 
dience; and amid that which constitutes 
the lustre and pomp of the world, she 
should be without any kind of eagerness 
er emotion, preserving her ordinary tran- 
quillity, without omitting or deferring the 
least of her exercises ; and what is most im« 
portant on this point, and most advisable, 
is not to converse on what she may have 
seen, and to banish it promptly from her 
mind, since it is only illusion and vanity. 
Such things are unworthy of occupying 
her miiid and heart. 

CHAPTER XXXir. 

What should be the subject of her conversa- 
tion, 

Jesus Christ alone ought to be her de- 
light, and the subject of her entertainments ; 
if hei* silence is interrupted, it should be 
h\\t to speak of him^ of what, he has donQ 



103 

and suffered for us, of the virtues which he 
has taught us, and which have been so ex- 
cellently practiced by his holy Mother, by 
the Apostles, and all the Saints. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

What she ought to observe in her ordinary 
entertainments. 

Should she find herself obliged to speak 
of any other than of God, she should never do 
it but with regret, and she must at least ob- 
serve therein all the discretion and circum- 
spection which her state requires. In her 
conversations she should abstain from all 
that could wound her neighbor, from every 
word that is unbecoming and uncivil, re- 
fraining from excessive laughter, and avoid- 
ing the gestures and manners of worldly 
persons, as well as every thing that savors 
of levity ; in fine, from all that is not suitable 
to a state which obliges her to render her 
conversation pure and angelic, especially 
avoiding egotism, since she cannot permit 
herself that liberty without some motion 
of pride and self-love insinuating itself 
therein, 



104 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

How she ought to regardhersdf^ after what 
has been announced to her, at her pro- 
fession. 

A religious of the blessed Virgin should 
constantly remember that it is no longer 
permitted her to live humanly, since at her 
profession it was announced to her that, by 
her vows, she was dead to the world and to 
herself, to live no longer but for God. 

She then took the cross of Jesus Christ 
for her portion, and she solemnly protested 
that she would place therein all her glory, 
that the world should be crucified to her, 
and that she would for ever be crucified to 
the world, to all its sentiments, manners, 
and customs. From the happy moment 
that it was declared to her that her life was 
hidden in God, with Jesus Christ, she con- 
tracted an indispensable obligation to live 
no longer but of the life of tliis divine Sa- 
vior, and to suffer nothing to subsist in her 
that is not conformable to the examples and 
sentiments of Jesus Christ. In every situa- 
tion she should be animated with his spirit. 



105 

and ever remember the poverty, humility* 
and simplicity of her profession. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Whei'eby she ought to supply the austerities 
which are practiced in other Orders. 

It is this that should engage her frequent- 
ly to confound herself in all the mitiga- 
tions that her rule gives her, and to consi- 
der herself so much the more obliged to 
love God, and to serve him in spirit and in 
truth, to compensate for all those exterior 
means, such as fasts, watchings, and other 
austerities, practiced by the Saints and Fa- 
thers of the desert, whose example she is 
recommended to have daily before her 
eyes, and particularly that of Jesus Christ 
in his most bitter sufferings, that she may 
learn to mortify and overcome herself^ 
courageously avoiding in her nourishment 
all that savors in the least of delicacy and 
sensuality. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

What shmdd be her disposition in sickness. 

In her greatest maladies, she should ever 

regard mediocrity and religious poverty^ 



106 

not seeking therein meats and remedies of 
an excessive price, more suitable for great 
ladies of the world than for a poor reli- 
gious, who in sickness ought to be patient, 
meek, and obedient ; indifferent to all that 
regards her nourishment, reliefs, and re- 
medies ; receiving all equally, as from the 
hand of God, without amusing herself in 
reflecting on her pain or noticing what is 
given her. She should not even think of 
the remedies that would be necessary or 
proper for her, much less should she pre- 
scribe them. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Her patience and self abandonment. 

A true religious never complains; she 
always believes that too much care is taken 
of her; if she exposes her wants and in- 
, conveniences, it is without exaggeration ; 
and she commits all that concerns her to 
her superior, leaving the care of what is 
necessary to her to whom it belongs. Sub- 
missive to the infirmarian, she obeys sim- 
ply and promptly, even in things the mo^t 



107 

diflScult, thinking only of supporting her 
indisposition with peace and submission to 
theorders of God, loving the dispensations 
of his providence, even in her sufferings, 
and keeping herself more intimately united 
to him in sickness than in health. 

t 

CHAPTER XXXVIII* 

How she ought to i^egard a state of^ sickness. 
It is in this exact obedience and entire 
submission of herself that the greatest fruit 
of sickness consists, which should be re- 
ceived, not only as a just punishment sent 
from God, but also as a precious favor of 
his mercy, by which he gives us a thou- 
sand means of practicing true virtue. 

CHAPTER XXXrX. 

How careful she ought to he in sickness^ 
to conform herself to Jesus Christ suf- 
ferings and to abandon herself to God. 
A religious in this situation cannot take 
too much care to conform herself to Jesus 
Christ suffering. It is then that she should 
have his holy passipn mom particularly 



108 

before her eyes, to abandon herselt to his 
providence, and to commit herself to his 
bounty in all that he will be pleased to or- 
dain. Her only occupation must be to keep 
her mind employed with God ; to enter 
^vith love into the designs of his mercy 
wer her; penetrated with this great truth, 
thatif one knew the treasures found in 
tribulations and sufferings, she could not 
forbear ardently desiring them. 

CHAPTER XL. 

How remote she ought to he from using the 
reliefs that might disedify her neighbor ^ 
and cause her to lose the spirit of her vo- 
cation. 

It is in these holy sentiments that a re- 
Jig;iousof the Visitation, who has consecrat- 
ed to God her person and her life, should 
rather hazard it, and sacrifice her health, 
than preserve both by means unworthy of 
her state, which tend to the scandal of her 
fieighbor and dishonor her profession, as 
going out to take the benefit of baths and^ 
waters, or the change of air, &c.^ which 



109 

cannot be done without the danger of los- 
ing the spirit of her vocation, which is diffi- 
cult to be preserved, how little soever one 
mingles with the world. This is what a 
true daughter of the Visitation should care- 
fully avoid, and refuse vfith great firmness^ 
and though she might have on this point 
the example of other religious orders, she 
should prefei rather to suffer all kinds of 
pains, and even death itself, than fail in the 
intentions of her holy Founder, and coun-» 
teract what he has so expressly declared 
against this abuse, as well as against the 
pernicious ambition of desiring and accept- 
ing Abbeys. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

How remote she should be from accepting 
Abbeys, 

We cannot find terms sufficiently strong 
to express the great aversion which St. 
Francis de Sales had for this folly. Our 
holy Mother de Chantal has assured us 
that if he had believed that it would have 
entered the minds of his daughters, he 



110 

would never have instituted his congrega- 
tion ; considering this ambition capable of 
ruining all its happiness, peace, and sanc- 
tity. Nothing is so important to a religious 
as to enter into this spirit, to follow these 
sentiments, an<i to comprehend the force of 
these words of the Wiseman: 
^' He who neglects his way shall be killed/ ' 

CHAPTER XLII. 

Her exactitude never to stray fromthe path 
marked out for her. 
She should walk therein, without turn- 
ing either to the right or to the left, refer- 
ring all the advices and instructions she 
may receive to a punctual observance of all 
that regards her institute, never admitting 
any thing contrary to it ; assured that 
though it were good for others, it would 
not be so for her. Each one should per- 
fect herself at^cording to her vocation by 
an attachment to her rule, remembering 
that exactitude in the observance of it, is 
so requisite, that if once the bond of the 
respect and obedience due to the rules be 
broken, all will go to ruin. 



Ill 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

She should he equally as faithful in th^ 
least as in the most considerable actions, 

St. Francis de Sales would not coun- 
tenance the least difference in the obser- 
vances; he desired that his daughters 
should be attentive to practice all to the 
letter, without distinction, fully persuaded, 
that this attention and fidelity to the obser- 
vances which appear the smallest and the 
most common will be the most pleasing to 
God, and attract upon them special graces. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

True simplicity makes no distinction in 
those things in which the will of God is 
manifest. 

A soul that loves God truly, subjects 
herself to all that is his will, without con- 
sidering any thing else than the respect 
and entire dependence which she owes his 
divine ordinance. This is the height of 
perfect humility, and should be the only 
object of a simple soul, that is to say, of a 



11^ 

soul that pretends, in what she does, only to 
accomplish the good pleas iirejof God, which 
she finds in the observance of her rules. 

CHAPTER XL.V. 

What should be the union among the Sis- 
ters and on ivhatit depends, 
A daughter of the Visitation should pre- 
serve union with all, and this should en- 
gage her to have but one heart, and one 
soul, with all those to whom she is united 
by one same vocation. Let her keep her- 
self always in this unity of mind by the 
bond of charity, which is that of perfec- 
tion ; thus she will correspond to the end 
for which, according to St. Augustin, sbe 
should have entered the monastery, and it 
is by her exactitude in practicing all that 
can entertain and perfect this union, that 
she will abundantly receive the effect of 
that admirable prayer which Jesus Christ 
made to his Father, the eve of his holy 
passion, supplicating him that, as his Father 
is in him, and he in his Father, so we also 
might be united in him, and made perfect 
in one. 



113 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

The obligation which this union imposes on 
the Sisters towards each other. 
This holy union should be not only in 
the heart, but it must extend to all the ac- 
tions and conduct of a true religious, who 
should bear a cordial love to her sisters, 
preventing them in respect, as the Apostle 
ordains ; always preferring them to herself , 
and being glad that they are preferred to 
her ; esteeming all that they do ; charita- 
bly covering their defects ; yielding in 
every thing to their will and judgment ; 
rendering them service in all their neces- 
sities ; and loving not less their happiness 
and repose than her own. In fine, the rule 
of this charity, so expressly recommended 
by St. Francis de Sales, is never to refuse 
to do or to suflfer all that is possible to ob- 
lige our neighbor, in what she may desire, 
if it be not contrary to what is due to God. 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

Wliat should be the sentiments of a daughter 
of the Visitation for all kinds of persons. 
A daughter of the Visitation should 

moreover respect and honor all kinds of 

8 



114 

persons, without despising any one, how 
poor, vile, or abject soever she may be. 
She ought to view all christians only in 
the quality of children of God and mem- 
bers of Jesus Christ, and cordially embrace 
them in the unity of this divine body, in 
which all distinction of poor and rich, 
master and slave, learned and ignorant, is 
lost and annihilated. It is in this same 
body she should consider herself, and this 
should constitute her glory and her hap- 
piness. She ought to labor daily, more and 
more, to render herself a worthy member 
of the church, referring to this end all her 
exercises and good works, performing all 
her prayers in communion with those of 
the church, and, as it were, to put some- 
thing from her funds into this common 
treasury, endeavoring to diffuse around her 
the order of good example. 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

What should be her love for her neighbor ^ 
and sentiments for other Orders, 
It is thus she should contribute to the 
salvation of her neighbor, which she should 



115 

desire as her own, frequently offering her 
meditations and communions for all the 
different states and necessities of the world. 
She ought to have a special regard for all 
religious orders, which she should cordial- 
ly love, esteem, cherish, and respect ; 
stifling every sentiment of jealousy or dis- 
pleasure that mi^ht arise in seeing them 
excel her own, and carefully repressing 
even the desire to equal those houses dis- 
tinguished by any kind of glory and reputa- 
tion. Actuated by the spirit of the primi- 
tive christians, let her ever acknowledge 
and love her baseness and abjection, and be 
always disposed to gratify and please others 
as far as her state permits, with a noble 
and generous heart, which spares nothing 
for the utility and consolation of her neigh- 
bor ; preserving peace as much as possi- 
ble, and avoiding even the smallest differ- 
ences, 

CHAPTER XLIX, 

Her horror for law suits, and her disposi- 
tion if they cannot be avoided. 
If such procedures must be entered upon^ 
after having taken all the precautions mark- 



1I(J 

ed by Constitution xxix, and the answer 
on Chapter xix, of the rule, a religious 
should preserve, with regard to the judges 
and pai ties concerned, a constant charity, 
and^n exact silence on all that could alter 
p^aee, as much and more than on what 
would be contrary to the interests of her 
house. She must remember that her pro- 
fession obliges her to behave with so much 
generosity, that she willingly yield as far 
as she can for the sake of chanty, as Jesua 
Christ has taught. SL Francis de Sales, 
in imitation of this divine Savior, has mos^ 
earnestly recommended it. He desires that 
on those occasions we should always sacri- 
fice something to those who wish it ; as- 
suring us, that this is requisite to preserve 
the good order of monasteries, and evinc- 
ing in the most sensible manner his great 
aversion for all kinds of disputes ; not be- 
ing able to suffer that we should have oi 
testify any ardor or attachment for the 
things of the world. This particularly re- 
gards the superior, and those whom obe- 
dience employs in the affairs of the house; 
for a simple religious should not even know 



lit 

whether there be law suits carried on or 
not. But if it happen that they have any 
knowledge of them, they should enter into 
the same spirit. 

CHAPTER L, 

What should be the love of a daughter of 
the Visitation for the will of Godj and 
her abnegationfor her own. 
Animated with these holy sentiments, a 
daughter of the Visitation should be dis- 
tinguished by her perfect devotedness to 
the will of God in ail things. Therefore 
«he should rejoice that there is not one of 
her actions which bears not the character 
of this divine will, that all her time is re- 
gulated thereby, and that there remains 
«ot a moment in the disposition of which 
she is ©0t liirected by obedience : that her 
heart and mind as well as her body are no 
longer at her own disposal, but perfectly 
subject to the conduct of her superiors; 
that she may not live eonformably to her 
own judgment, wisdom and direction, but 
^iccording to that of another, without seek- 
ing her contentment in any thinjg whatever. 



rib 

CHAPTER LI. 

The buildings and furniture of the monas- 
tery. 

The buildings of the house, all the furni- 
ture thereof, and even the smallest things 
which are for her use, have been exactly 
regulated as to the matter and form, with 
a very great detail, that there maybenoth- 
ing, in all that surrounds her, which savors 
not of the spirit of poverty and simplicity 
that should reign among the true servants 
efGode 

CHAPTER LII. 

What should be observed at the burials of 
the Sisters. 

What is ordained with regard to her in- 
termentshould remind her of the poverty 
she professes. Our holy Mother de Chan- 
talhas expressly declared that we should 
keep exactly to the small number of priests 
prescribed by Constitution L.; having re- 
marked that when the prelates wish to per- 
form the office they should be entreated to 



119 

bring as few ecclesiastics as passible, and 
not to multiply the ceremonies, but to ob- 
serve humility and perfect simplicity, in 
which the religious of the Visitation should 
live, and which alone should embellish 
their interment. 

CHAPTER LIII. 

Holo much the spirit of this order requires a 
removal from all that could gratify the 
senses^ even in those things which have 
reference to piety. 

It is for this reason that all singing and 
instrumental music are retrenched, and 
all that can render devotion effeminate, 
in gratifying the senses, as also every thing 
that savors eclat in piety, or nourishes what 
might remain in them of the human mind ; 
since they are called to act only bj 
the spirit of faith. In the Constitution 
xxxviii. St. Francis de Sales forbids that 
in any part of the house, and especial- 
ly in the church, there be any dolls of de- 
votion to represent our Lord, the blessed 
Virgin, or the Angels, nor any thing of 



120 



fhe kind| permitting only pictures that 
are well executed, and which shall have 
been approved of by the spiritual Father. 

CHAPTER LIV. 

The character of the spirit of piety ^ sim^ 
pUcity:^ and humility. 
Now, if there be any who pretend that 
this exterior embellishment may serve to 
excite piety, let them remember that this 
having been proposed to our holy Mother 
de Chantal, she answered that it was not 
the attraction by which God wished to 
animate the piety of the daughters of the 
blessed Virgin, and that no other was re- 
quisite for them than that of piety itself, 
humility, and simplicity. 

CHAPTER IiV. 

That every thing should be done through m^ 
impulse of grace^ and nothing through 
that of nature. 

This spirit requires a life always equal 
and uniform, and that we accomplish the 
most common and ordinary observances 



121 

with a love always new, sustained by ^ 
strength and holy generosity, which keep 
the soul elevated above the senses, and 
make her act in all things through grace, 
which mortifies and destroys more and 
more our humors and passions. It is this 
that renders her constant and faithful 
through all the disgusts, drynesses, temp- 
tations, and difficulties that she can expe- 
rience ; it renders her attentive to the solid 
practice of virtue, and gives her a patience 
proof against injuries, sufferings, and con- 
tradictions; a sincere and profound humili- 
ty, which is preserved amid contempts, 
confusions, and abjections; a meekness and 
an equality which sustain her notwith- 
standing diversity of sentiments, events, 
and occupations, and make her obey in all 
things with simplicity, promptitude and 
exactness, regardless of the repugnances 
of human nature. 

CHAPTER LVI. 

What St. Francis de Sales had principally/ 
in view in establishing his^ congregation. 
This little work encloses the true per- 
fection which St. Francis de Sales desired 



12S 

to establish in all his houses, to supply so 
many prayers, ceremonies, and austerities, 
that are practiced in other orders, and 
which he did not wish to have introduced 
into his, that it might always be an asylum 
for those persons, who cannot have access 
to the more austere, and who, before the 
holy institution of this order, were con- 
strained to remain in the world, exposed to 
continual occasions of sin, or, at least, in 
danger of losing the fervor of devotion. 

CHAPTER LVII. 

To consider only the interior disposition 
in the choice of the subjects who present 
themselves. 

It is in favor of these kind of persons 
that St. Francis de Sales has established 
his congregation, which he desired should 
be a retreat for the aged, the infirm, the 
feeble, those of a delicate complexion, the 
lame, the blind, and deformed. He wish- 
ed that human prudence should not cause 
us to reject them, provided they be not en- 
tirely incapable of following the rule and 



123 

ordinary exercises, and that they have a 
sound mind, and be well disposed to live 
in their infirmities, with a profound hu- 
mility, obedience, meekness, simplicity, 
and resignation ; for if those persons who 
have infirm bodies, have not a good mind, 
and if they are not determined to tend to the 
height of sanctity, by the practice of true 
virtues, their retreat would be useless to 
themselves, and of great prejudice to the 
monastery. 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

With what chaiHty the strong Sisters ought 
to aid and support the infirm. 

Those strong persons whom God has 
called to religion to succor and assist the 
infirm, should ever remember that to satis- 
fy the end of their institute it suffices not 
to receive them, but they must treat, serve 
and relieve them in all their wants, with- 
out becoming weary by the length of their 
infirmities, or testifying any disgust or re- 
pugnance on account of the labor and ex- 
pense incurred by their continual mala- 



124 

dies. On the contrary, they should con- 
sider them as the living images of Jesus 
Christ crucified, and accomplish, with a 
constant generosity and persevering chari- 
ty, all the intentions of St. Francis de Sales 
in the institution of his congregation, 
which was to provide a place for the poor 
infirm to glorify God in their sufferings, 
and to the persons more robust to exercise 
charity towards them, and to merit, in prac- 
ticing it, the reward of their patience and 
labors. 

GOD BE PRAISED. 



LIVE t JESUS. 

Maxims of the venet^able Mother de Chan^ 
tal of the Visitation, 

MAXIM I. 

On Humitity, 

The true virtue of humility consists in 
this, that when we are humbled, we hum« 
ble ourselves still more ; when we are ac- 
cused, we accuse ourselves still more ; if 
we be employed in low things, to acknow- 
ledge that it is much above what we me- 
rit; if we be removed to be glad of it; and 
thus we shall become truly humble. Hu- 
mility is the general principle of our order, 

A daughter could not give a greater 
mark of her incapacity than to believe her- 
self capable ; this is contrary to humility, 
which makes us esteem ourselves insuffi- 
cient for every thing: if we knew what 
God requires of the daughters of the Visi- 
tation, and how much the souls who exalt 
themselves and make parade of vanity 
grieve the spirit of Go^, we would beg that 



126 

lire from heaven would consume those who 
infringe his designs. 

1 could wish to engrave this maxim with 
my blood, which will, if it be observed, 
maintain the whole institute in union and 
conformity : would to God that my lips 
Avere pierced with a red-hot iron, ihat 
for ever the mouths of the daughters of this 
congregation might be closed against the 
least word contrary to humility ; nothing 
being more capable of shortening my days 
than to see vanity among them. 

Let us by no means rejoice for the favor- 
able receptions which our institute re- 
ceives, but let us humble ourselves and 
thereby glorify God ; for to be a true daugh- 
ter ol the blessed Virgin, is to esteem con- 
tempt and to contemn honor. 

Without solid humility there are but 
shadows and simple images of virtue : bless- 
ed is the soul that humbles herself before 
God, and accuses herself before creatures; 
she will invariably recover what she may 
have lost by her fault: humility of heart, 
submission of will and judgment, should be 
the toundation of our perfection. 



127 

Humility is the mother of all sanctity, 
which attributes nothing to itself, but re- 
fers the glory of all to God ; it is the key 
of God's treasury ; if the soul present her- 
self before him without this key, she will 
never participate in the riches enclosed in 
the eternal coffers, but will eternally re- 
main poor and miserable. 

I supplicate you, sisters, let us have at 
heart the practice of this holy humility ; 
but let it be a generous humility, which 
fears only sin, which has a holy liberty 
that depends and holds but on the will of 
God ; so that wherever she sees it, she 
runs to embrace it, not ostentatiously, but 
simply and humbly receiving with equal 
love, through respect to his most holy will, 
contempt and humiliations as honors and 
elevations. 

MAXIM II. 

On Poverty. 

Poverty is the most precious treasure of 

the servants of God ; therefore, sisters, let 

us not seek temporal conveniences, but let 

us rejoice to be despoiled of earthly things, 



128 

since we participate in the spiritual riches 
of the house of God. 

The true disciples of Jesus Christ love 
to see holy poverty appear in their sacris- 
ties, dormitories, refectories, and other 
places. 

The practice of true poverty, consists in 
di privation, not only of useful things, but 
even of those that are necessary. It is not 
perfected in having quitted all for God> 
but must also love to suffer for him. 

Let us willingly accustom ourselves to 
the little wants and daily contradictions 
which are met in the order of the provi- 
dence of God ; let us tenderly cherish them 
as means which he has destined us from 
all eternity, and which he presents us to 
attain perfection : but if he sometimes de- 
lay his assistance to try our confidence, 
let us expect it in peace ; for he says : Cast 
thy care and thy thought upon the Lord 
and he will nourish thee. 

It would be a great imperfection to desire 
to have all our conveniences, whether in 
nourishment, clothing, or other things, 
since too great a solicitude for temporal 



1-29 

things, would diminish and even ruin the 
primitive spirit of our rule. 

We must be very careful not to com- 
plain of the effects of poverty ; such a con- 
duct is displeasing to God and man. We 
must support its inconveniences with great 
courage, rendering ourselves unshaken 
on this word : '' Seek first the kingdom of 
God, and his justice and all things shall be 
added unto you." 

Oh ! how delightful it is, to see the ser- 
vants of God, as says the Apostle, gaining 
their life by the labor of their hands, and 
having no other to-morrow thap that of di- 
vine Providence ! 

MAXIM III. 

On Obedience. 

If we are not submissive and obedient, 
we are but phantoms of religion : for she 
who vows obedience, and afterwards as- 
sumes the government of herself, violates 
her vow; and after having died for God, 
miserably suffers herself to resuscitate 
through self-love. 

9 



130 

It is a true mark that a soul does not 
view God alone, when she seeks to obey- 
according to her will and not according to 
that of divine Providence. Oh ! how great 
a dtesire have I to see you advance in the 
perfection of holy love, by a perfect sub- 
mission to your superiors, and by an equal 
docility to any one that has authority over 
you. 

She who will obey with all her heart 
any superior whatever, may boldly say, 
^' the Lord governs me, and I shall need 
nothing.'^ 

It appears to me that 1 should have more 
satisftiction in obeying the least sister, who 
would only contradict rae, commanding me 
in a harsh and severe manner, than insub^ 
mitting to the most capable and experienc- 
ed in the whole order ; for where there is 
less of the creature, there is more of the 
Creator ; and the obedience is more solid,, 
pure, and simple, for his glory. 

I should have no esteem, I assure you, 
for a religious, how holy soever she might 
seem to be,, if I did not see her ready to do 
all, to go every where, and to suffei: every 



131 

thing, at the least intimation of obedience, 
and of the will of God, 

It is immaterial to a daughter of the 
blessed Virgin where she is, provided she 
find a house of the Visitation in which she 
can observe her vows and rules. 

They who attach themselves to places, to 
houses, or to superiors, show indeed that 
they seek not God purely. 

If we seek God every where, we shall 
every where find him, and if it be less gra- 
tifying to our self-love, it will be more 
agreeable to his divine Majesty. 

Our holy Father wished us to attach 
ourselves to his spirit, and not to his per- 
son; and as long as we obey one more 
willingly than another, we are not true 
servants of God. In fine, my dear daugh- 
ters, let us so well subject all our inclina- 
tions to the dead rule, that we may be as 
living rules, 

MAXIM IV, 

Abandonment to divine Providence. 
As it is from the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaks, our worthy J\Jother^ on 



all occasions, i^eged these divine words : 
Providence ! Providence ! ttie will of God 
in prosperity or adversity: wbeti afflicted, 
we should annihilate our hearts, and adhere 
to God. 

The confidence of christian souls should 
consist in a perfect abandonment to him, 
above and beyond all human view and pru- 
dence. 

Oh, how great a happiness it is to walk 
in this perfect dependance on the sovereign 
Providence, invariably remaining under 
the divine protection. 

Our great God disdains not to employ 
his wisdom in conducting a poor, little 
creature : why, then, will we take care of 
ourselves? 

Let us accustom ourselves to neglect 
many things and desire very little, remit- 
ting all to the providence of the celestial 
Father, who is not willing that those souls 
whom he cherishes rest their hopes on 
earthly riches, but on those eternal goods 
which be prepares for them in his infinite 
goodness. 

Not that it ia requisite to shut the ear§k 
of our heart to the voice of all creatures.. 



133 

whether reasonable or sensitive, or to those 
that hav e but a simple degree of existence ; 
for, though their hannony is passing, they 
are a great help to the ^oul whotjonsiders 
them as instruments of divine Providence. 

We must love sovereignly the good plea- 
sure of God, embracing equally things that 
are painful and agreeable, that it may in- 
crease in us the hope of beatitude ; for 
God disposes of all things for the good of 
his children. 

If we follow his designs over us, though 
heaven and earth should be overturned, we 
would not desist from considering it, since 
it is immaterial whether we suffer or en- 
joy, provided the divine will be accom- 
plished. 

Good souls are as tranquil in trihulation 
as in consolation, since their beatitude con- 
sists in submission to the will of God and 
in the increa^ of his divine love. 

A soul that is totally abandoned to the 
celestial Providence, is unshaken in all 
kinds of events ; she wills but God, she 
sees but God, she attaches herself but to 
God, she belongs unreservedly to God. 



134 

MAXIM V. 

Of Mortification. 

lannounce to you, my dear daughters, 
an infallible truth, that it is impossible for 
you to enter heaven without doing vio- 
lence to yourselves ; for our Lord has hid- 
den the price of his glory in the victory 
which we gain over nature : therefore, en- 
grave deeply in your hearts this intimate 
resolution of overcoming yourselves, and 
offering violence on all occasions, to ac- 
quire virtue, and to render yourselves con- 
formable and exact to what the rule ordains, 
at the sacrifice of all your inclinations. 

Your intention in coming to the Visita- 
tion should have been to divest yourselves 
of youi^elves, that you might be united to 
God ; it is a little earth, in which, if one 
dies not to herself, she will never bear 
fruits worthy of her vocation, and you 
cannot be spouses of Jesus Christ, but in 
as much as you will crucify your judg- 
ment, your will, and inclinations, to con- 
form yourselves to him. 



135 

You have quitted the world to embrace 
a religious life : this Spouse of your hearts 
makes you ascend, and powerfully attracts 
to himself on the Mount of Calvary, where, 
crowned with thorns, he permits himself 
to be stripped naked, nailed to the cross^ 
gall to be given him to drink, despised to 
the utmost rigor, his side pierced with a 
lance, and finally he endures for you thou- 
sands of pains most violent and dolorous to 
his holy humanity ; you must then cheer- 
fully remain there, endeavoring to imitate 
him by an entire conformity, which con- 
sists in two points. 

The first is to divest yourselves of your- 
selves, laboring courageously and faithfuK 
ly at your perfection ; for, my dear daugh- 
ters, we came from the world quite rough, 
unpolished, and full of bad inclinations, 
which we must smooth and retrench to be 
able to unite ourselves to our Lord, It is 
not he who should reform himself, to be 
united to us, for he is all beautiful and per^ 
feet ; but it is we who must destroy our 
imperfections, to conform and adjust our- 
selves to hirn. 



The second point is, to suffer yourselves 
to be mortified and flayed, and your hearts 
subdued in such a manner as they please, 
for you must use no reserve towards God, 
but give him all, by an entire resignation 
and abandonment of yourselves into the 
hands of those who conduct you ; let them 
despoil you of every thing, if they please ; 
let them contradict your iJicIinatlons a& 
they wish ; lei them never condescend to 
any one of them ; let them make you labor 
when you wish to remain in your cells, 
and make you sew when you wish to spin ; 
let them mortify and humble you when you 
wish to be caressed and esteemed ; in fine, 
let them accuse you in the most sensible 
points ; if you resist, you will not be the 
spouses of Jesus crucified, and you will 
never attain perfection. But, if you re- 
nounce yourselves and abandon all without 
reserve, you will experience unspeakable 
sweetness in the service of God, and it 
will be your delight to destroy nature, and 
establish the reign of grace. '^ I will give 
to them that overcome, says our divine 
Savior, a hidden manna, of which, as sooa 



137 

a§ they shall have tasted a little, they will 
no longer care for earthly delights." But 
remark, that you must be conquerers to 
taste this manna, since it is not for the 
slothful, but for souls that are valiant^ 
strong, and courageous, who are resolved 
to destroy in themselves whatever they 
know to be displeasing to God, contrary to 
his will and divine intentions ; who retain 
nothing, but give all ; who do not permit 
themselves to be governed by the move- 
ments of nature, but are guided on all oc- 
casions by a principle of grace. It is true, 
this violence must be mild, according to 
the spirit of our holy Founder, but equally 
firm, making us unceasingly labor with a 
constant, strong, and amorous fidelity, since 
it is for God and for eternity; for the heart 
that does not tend to, and aim at perfection, 
is advancing in the way of perdition. Oh ! 
my dear daughters, destroy your enemy 
courageously and manfully ; for by his 
death you will acquire the peace and life 
of your soul. 

I know one who has made an extraordi- 
nary progress by this practice of overcom- 



138 

ing herself in every thing — in her mind, 
body, inclinations, passions, affections, de- 
sires, and natural humors; having advanc- 
ed more, in a short time, than many others 
who vrere less inclined to mortification. 

In fine, we are in a valley of tears, in 
which we must fight, suffer, and labor to 
gain heaven : the church of God is called 
militant, because the faithful who are its 
members should continually mortify them- 
selves; subjecting the flesh to the spirit, 
and nature to grace, for we will never be 
agreeable to God but by a strong, gener- 
ous, and persevering practice of this holy 
virtue. 

MAXIM VI. 

On Exactitude in the Ohservances. 

My dear daughters, remember this sen- 
tence, pronounced by the eternal Wisdom : 
" He that shall break one of the least of 
these commandments, and shall so teach 
men, shall be called the least in the king- 
dom of heaven." 

Have greatly at heart a punctuality to 
the observances, but a punctuality which u 



139 

gay, amorous, and without restraint, pro- 
ceeding from the interior, which attaches 
itself to the spirit and not to the letter. 

It is well to observe the rule which or- 
dains to be prompt at the first sound of the 
bell, but it is much better to practice that 
which teaches a perfect abnegation of self- 
will. 

I know not any rule which uro:es so 
forcibly as this : '^ Thej^ shall do all things 
in a spirit of profound, sincere and candid 
humility ; " for it must be remarked, that 
what is said of this rule, extends to all the 
others, in spirit, and not in words and looks. 

But we must observe them with a gene- 
rosity of soul, so that divine love be the 
principle that urges us ; to keep silence, 
to submit ourselves to the least obser- 
vances, to receive humiliations with joy, 
and to suffer chcerfuly all kinds of incon- 
veniences and things the most painful, 
rendering ourselves so careful in the ob- 
servances that we omit not a single point 
of them ; finally, that this celestial love 
be our motive, end, and pretention, in all 
we do, 



A COLLECTION 

X)f some Maxims and Instructions on the 
practice of virtues which has not been in- 
S€:ted in the preceding discourses. 

This mystical sign, approaching its end, 
invites us, before concluding, to notice the 
remainder of her beautiful words, maxims, 
and instructions, since all these things 
compose a part of the article of her last 
will and testament, and of the table of the 
law of holy love, which she has left to her 
congregation : but we should be animated 
with zeal, which consumed her, in pro- 
nouncing these words : '' Oh, that I had 
an inflamed dait, wherewith to enkindle 
in your hearts the love of the perfection 
and virtue which our vocation requires ! 
for, my very dear daughters, religion is an 
academy of every virtue, and a secure way 
to conduct our souls to a union with our 
celestial Spouse, it is his school, in which 
he himself becomes the master of our hearts, 
instructing them in his divine pleasure by 
means of his inspirations, of our rules, and 
^ur superiors. The world teaches its 



MI 

children only deceit and- vanity ; but Jesu^ 
Christ teaches his, truth, mortification, and 
humility. It is the gate of heaven and the 
house of God, in which those who seek 
him in simplicity, fail not to find him. 

We are enclosed in our beloved cloisters 
as chosen souls, to sing continually the can- 
ticle of love and of the divine pleasure. Let 
ti§ often reflect on the happiness of a re- 
ligious life and the greatness of this bene- 
fit, by which God has drawn us from the 
service of the world, to enter that of bis 
divine Majesty: he has separated us from 
its troubles and solicitudes, that we might 
have no other care than to please him ; he 
has taken us in his arms to carry us, not- 
withstanding our resistance, to this holy 
vocation, in which we have so many occa- 
sions of insuring our salvation, and none of 
losing it, except through our own malice. 
Let us endeavor to be most grateful for 
this favor, which should be weighed with 
the weights of the sanetviary : the perfec- 
tion which our celestial Spouse requires is 
founded on true and solid virtues an not 
^Xx natural gifts. Our holy Father spoke 



very little of extraordinary and superna- 
tural favors, because he conducted souls 
more by a solidity of abnegation, humility, 
and simplicity, than by other ways more 
elevated; and when he observed in any one 
of his daughters an attraction to the most 
sublime prayer, if he did not see also in 
her the foundation of solid virtue, he made 
no account of it ; but he loved much cou- 
rageous souls who were absolutely and ef- 
ficaciously inclined to virtue, notwithstand- 
ing what might happen, without examin- 
ing whether they had any relish or disgust, 
pleasure or displeasure, consolation or de- 
solation ; he wished that amid interior 
peace, as amid bitterness, they should tend 
directly to God by an absolute abandon- 
ment and abnegation of themselves in a pro- 
found humility, sincerity, meekness of 
heart, and equality of mind. These souls 
were perfectly dear to him, though be did 
not neglect others, who were more cow^ 
ardly, and who, he was accustomed to say, 
were so rooted in the love of themselves, 
that, notwithstanding the unceasing labors 
bestowed on them, if they ever producecj 



143 

either flowers or fruits, it would be very^ 
late. Such are those indolent souls who 
turn a deaf ear to the holy attractions and 
admonitions of divine love, which invites 
them to renounce this inclination, to com- 
bat this imperfection, to rise from that fall, 
and to embrace such and such a virtue. 
Oh ! how much are these poor souls to be 
pitied ; for the spirit of God retires when we 
resist his inspirations and refuse our con- 
sent. The Spouse, in the canticles, says 
that the bed is narrow, and will not admit 
two, testifying the desire he has of possess- 
ing entirely our affections and desires, nor 
will he be united to us until they be ad- 
justed to his; and that soul who is con- 
stant, and who, in spite of the difficulties of 
nature, ceases not to do what she believes 
to be pleasing to God, is his well beloved. 
We must then serve him constantly, with 
an unequalled love, and an entire devoted- 
ness of our whole being, for though one 
should perform miracles, and } et fail in the 
practice of virtue, she would not be a ser- 
vant of Jesus Christ. I cannot support un- 
generous souls, who are indifferent about 



144 

their perfection, for the holy scripture 
says, " He who neglects his way, shall be 
killed ; " and " he who overcomes shall be 
crowned with glory." Courage, then, my 
dear daughters, since no one is worthy of 
serving in the house of God who is not 
humble, devout, and mortified. The means 
of attaining it, are a love of solitude, pray- 
er, and mortification ; for a true religious 
should view earthly pleasures only through 
the cross of her Spouse — that is to say, with 
an eye of disdain : this is why the saints 
loved prisons not only for the sake of in- 
nocence, justice, and abjection, but also 
from a spirit of penance, retreat, and eon- 
tempt of the world. 

Pious lectures which incline the soul to 
the practice of virtues, to a fear and respect 
for the judgments of God, and a holy dread 
x)f the account which must be rendered to 
him, are very useful ; for how advanced 
soever a soul may be in spirituality, if she 
nourish not this filial fear, she will gradual- 
ly recede from the path of perfection. \V ith 
regard to temptations, they serve as a spur 
to virtue : they who are exercised by them, 



145 

%hotild take the wings of a dove, and fly to 
the cliffs of the rock — ^the sacred wounds of 
Jesus — and there remain tranquilly, with- 
out motion or the least reply : finally, vir- 
tues are a mystical chain that should be 
linked by prudence, as our holy Mother, 
the church, teaches us ; but to practice 
them well, we must blend ten thousand 
ounces of simplicity with one of prudence. 
This conduct will teach us to attach our- 
selves to what is solid, without regarding 
what is pleasing, and not to judge of 
virtue by appearances of fervor or recol- 
lection; by sentiments of perfection and 
exterior practices, which commonly are 
the effects of nature, and remain as Ion gas 
sensible devotion continues, but when this 
subsides and trials or aridities succeed, the 
soul becomes troubled, because she does 
not find herself such as she imagined. 

We must penetrate our hearts and ex- 
amine whether virtue is rooted therein, 
and our affection for it, such as causes us 
to produce acts of it on all occasions ; amid 
desolations, contradictions, and humilia- 
tions, as in consolations and agreeable 
10 ^ 



i4^ 

occurrences. If our affection for poverty 
makes us love to suffer its inconveniences j 
or if humility keeps us base and abject in our 
own eyes, and makes us desire to be reput- 
ed and treated as such ; if we have a benign 
charity in supporting amiably the contra- 
dictions which happen to us on the part of 
our neighbor, without complaining, or 
thinking that he does wrong, but attribut- 
ing the cause of the injury to ourselves, 
or a patience tranquil and without sad- 
ness amid our pains and labors ; in fine, if 
our submission renders us indifferent to 
all kinds of obediences and superiors, or 
if simplicity keeps us united to the divine 
will in contradictions, inclining us to 
receive indifferently from the hand of 
our good God, all that happens to us, 
without any kind of reflection. Thus 
of all other virtues, the practices of which 
occur at every moment by the order of di- 
vine Providence and our holy observances ; 
our principal care should be to keep our 
hearts tranquilly united to God, that we 
may the better discern the light which he 
willimpart to us, and faithfully follow itj 



147 

having no other solicitude than to preserve 
it: finally, my dear daughters, the life of 
man is deceitful and short ; eternity ap- 
proaches ; let us advance towards it by a 
faithful practice of the virtues which will 
obtain for us, with the grace of God, its hap- 
py possession. 

In conclusion, we may say of this mo- 
ther, whom we believe elect and predes- 
tined, that having been truly conformable 
to the image of the Son of God during the 
time and in all the situations of her ad- 
mirable and precious life, she may serve 
as the model of all virtuous souls ; for in her 
secular life, she was an example to chris- 
tian ladies ; in the monastic state, the mirror 
of souls truly religious; and in her super- 
eminent life, which she passed in the ex- 
ercise of true and solid virtues, God has 
rendered her the prototype of perfect souls^ 
so that we may invite all christians, as did 
St. Paul, to be imitators of her, as she w^^ 
of Jesus Christ, 



148 

SENTIMENTS 

Of St. Francis de Sales on the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus y drawn from his writings. 

The religious of the Visitation, who will 
be so happy as faithfully to observe their 
rules, may truly be called Evangelical 
Daughters, established in this last age to 
honor and imitate the meekness and hu- 
mility of the adorable heart of the word 
incarnate. These virtues being the basis 
and foundation of their order, entitle them 
also to the privilege and incomparable favor 
of bearing the appellation of daughters of 
the sacred heart of Jesus. 

If the sisters of this congregation, adds 
our Father, are very humble and faithful 
to God, they will have the heart of Jesus, 
their crucified Spouse, as their place of re. 
treat and repose in this world, and his ce-^ 
lestial palace for their abode in eternal life. 
God made known to Mother Ann Marga- 
ret Clement, superior of the Visitation of 
Melun, who died in the odor of sanctity, that 
St. Francis de Sales during his life made 
his abode in the sacred heart of Jesus, in 
which his repose was never interrupted 



149 

by the most distracting occupations Moses, 
by conversing familiarly with God, became 
the meekest of men, and our amiable Saint, 
by his intimate union with the divine 
heart of Jesus, acquired in the most emi- 
nent degree, the two virtues of this adora- 
ble heart — humility and meekness. It was 
this that induced him to establish an order 
in the church, to honor in a particular man- 
ner this adorable heart, by the practice of 
these two virtues, which are the foundation 
of the rules of the Daughters of the Visita- 
tion ; and as the different orders which are 
in the church are destined to honor some 
particular virtue of the Son of God, so that 
of the Visitation is established to render a 
continual homage to the Sacred Heart of 
Jesus, in his hidden and annihilated life. 



1^ 



166 



ADVICE 

Of our holy Founder to our worthy Mo^ 
ther. copied from the original, written 
vrith her own hand^ in her Book of Con- 
stitutio7iSy which is care/idly preserved 
at our second Monastery of Rennes. 

I desire that you be extremely little 
and low in your own eyes, meek and con- 
descending as the dove; that you love your 
abjection and practice it faithfully; em- 
brace readily and with a good heart all the 
occasions which may present themselves to 
this effect. Be not prompt in speaking, 
but reply slowly, humbly, and meekly, 
and say much in remaining silent, through 
modesty and equality. 

Support and excuse your neighbor very 
much and with great meekness of heart. 

Do not philosophize upon the contradic- 
tions which befall you, not considering 
them at all, bu4; only God, in all things, 
without any exception whatever, and ac- 
quiesce quite simply to his orders. 



151 

D& all tMngs for God, uniting and con- 
tinuing your union with him by simple 
fooks and flowings of your heart towards 
him. 

Be not eager for any thing ; do all things 
tranquilly, in a spirit of repose. 

Lose not your interior peace for any thing 
whatever, though all should be thrown 
into confusion ; for what are all things in 
this life when compared to peace of soul. 

Recommend all things to God and ke^. 
yourself tranquil and in repose on the bo- 
som of his paternal Providence. 

In all occurrences be invariably faithful 
in this resolution of remaining in a most 
simple unity and unique simplicity of ad- 
herence to God, through a love of perfect 
confidence, abandoning yourself to the 
mercy of the love and eternal care which 
the divine Providence has for you. Though 
your mind should stray from it, lead it back 
gently and very simply. 

Remain constantly in a most holy na- 
kedness of mind, without clothing yourself 
with any cares, desires, pretentions, or af- 
fections, under any pretext whatever. 



152 

Our Lord loves you ; he wishes you to 
be all his ; have no other arms in which 
you are carried than his ; no other bosom 
on which you repose than his divine Pro- 
vidence ; cast not your views elsewhere, 
but fix your mind on him alone. 

Keep your will so intimately united to 
his, that nothing may divide them ; forget 
all the rest, and no longer amuse yourself 
with it, for God desires your beauty and 
simplicity. 

Have great courage, and keep yourself 
humbly abased before the divine Majesty. 
Desire nothing but the pure love of our 
Lord. 

Refuse nothing, how painful soever it 
may be. Clothe yourself with our Lord 
crucified ; love him in his sufferings, and 
make ejaculatory prayers on them. 

Perform his will, my dearest Mother, 
my true daughter ; my soul and my mind 
bless you with all their affection ; and may 
Jesus Christ do in us, with us, through 
us, and for himself, his most holy will. 
Amen. ^'I have, thanks to God, my eyes 
fixed on this Eternal Providence, whose de- 
crees will be forever the laws of my heart.'- 



153 

A PRAYER 

To our holy Founder composed by our 
worthy Mother j written with her own 
hand in the same book. 

Oh ! most happy St. Francis de Sales, 
the true servant of our Lord, the dear and 
most assured guide of my soul, the precious 
gift of my God, my true Father, I say, my 
most sweet Master, and now my faithful 
Advocate, behold our necessities, and the 
heart that God has united to yours. Do not 
permit that it ever be separated from it ; re- 
member you have promised me that this 
union would be eternal. Obtain then, my 
most venerable Father, by your holy in- 
tercession, that I be faithful to the obser- 
vance of the things you have taught me, 
that I attain to that unity which you now 
enjoy so gloriously ; that I may, with you, 
in the company of the glorious Virgin and 
the Saints, praise, bless, and love eternally 
the beloved of our souls. It is this I beg of 
you, not only for myself, but for all the chil- 
dren of the holy church, and in particular 



154 

for the dear congregation which you have 
established in our Lord, and of which you 
made remembrance in your holy prayers 
during your pilgrimage. You see, oh most 
holy Father, the desires of my soul; I will 
not express them to you. You know the 
veneration which I have for you ; you behold 
my tears, my sentiments, and the perfect 
confidence I will have in your holy pro- 
tection. My Father, my Master, and my 
Saint, remember that God has given me to 
you, and you to me. Have then a con- 
tinual care of me, I entreat you, that I may 
accomplish perfectly the holy will of my 
God without reserve.. Amen. 



ADVICE. 

Our venerable Mother Claude Agnes 
Joly de la Roche, fourth religious of the 
order J leaving our worthy Mother de Chan- 
tal, for divers foxindations, which were al- 
ways to separate her from our holy foun- 
dress, received from her among other tes- 
timonies of her tender afFecjfion. her Book 
of Constitutions, This she carried about 
her, froiu which the above was taken : mi 



155 

tlie said Mother De la Roche dying in our 
first Monastery of Rennes in 1630, left 
it to our dear sister Mary Francis Louvel, 
her Infirmarian, who has since come in 
quality of Assistant, to the foundation of 
this second monastery, in which this pre- 
cious volume is kept as a relic. 

<^OD SS PRAISSD. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter. Page. 

I. Of the Interior Spirit of the Daughters of 
the Visitation founded on Mount Calvery. S 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 
on the same subject. - - - 6 

II. St. Francis of Sales, proposes the humility 
of Jesus Christ to his daughters, for their imi- 
tation. - - - - - 8 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 
on the same subject. - - - - 11 

III. On the love of our Neighbor. - - 13 

IV. Of Charity in the reception of Subjects. - 15 

V. In what manner charity is to be exercised in 
foundations and missions. - - - 20 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 
on the same subject. - - - - 23 

VI. Of abandonment to Divine Providence. - 25 
Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 

on the same subject. - - - - 29 

VII. Of the Vow of Chastity. - - - 30 
Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 

on the same subject. - - - - 33 

VIII. On the Vow of Poverty. - - .35 
Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 

on the same subject. - - . - - 38 



Chapter. Pago. 

IX. On the Vow of Obedience. - - 4a 
Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 

on the same subject. - - - - 44 

X. Of the prayer which God communicates to 
some chosen souls, and some instructions on 
the subject, by the servant of God, St. Francis 

of Sales. - - - - - 4e 

XI. Other instructions concerning the practice 

of prayer. - - - - - 62 

Reflections and Maxims of St. Francis of Sales 

on the same subject. - - - - 60 

An Epistle of the Venerable Mother De Chan- 

tal. 62 



Extracts from the Writings of St. Francis de Sales, and 

those of Mother de Chantal. 
Chapter. Page. 

I. How a religious of the Visitation should re- 
gard herself. - - • - - 79 

II. Her intention in retiring from the world. - 80 

III. Her only affair. - - - - 80 

IV. The obligations of her vows. - - 80 

V. With what disposition she should make her 
profession, and whom she ought to propose to 
herself as her model therein. - - - 81 

VI. How far her zeal and fervor should extend. 81 

VII. She should put no bounds to the perfection 
proposed to her. - - - - 82 

VIII. What the quality of a daughter of the 
Blessed Virgin demands. - - - 83 



3 

Chapter. Page. 

IX. To what the example of Jesu3 Christ cru- 
cified, should lead her. - - - 83 

X. How far her spirit of mortification should 

extend. - - - - - 84 

XI. Her love and affection for poverty. - 85 

XII. What should be her simplicity and humil- 
ity. - - - - - - 86 

XIII. In what she ought more particularly to 
practice humility. - - - - 87 

XIV. How she ought to regard every thing that 
tends to self-annihilation. - - - 88 

XV. What constitutes the humility of a daughter 

of the Visitation. - - - ■• ' 8S 

XVI. How she ought to receive adviceand cor- 
rections. - - - - - 89 

XVII. Whence proceed? the practice of the ac- 
cusation of faults. - - - - 90 

XVIII. Her attention to the presence of God, 
and what her exterior deportment should be. 91 

XIX. How exact her observance of silence 
should be, and the fruits she should draw from 

it. The effects of silence. - - - 92 

XX. In what disposition a daughter of the Vis- 
itation should be, with regard to the parlor, 
and how she should conduct herself there. - 93 

XXI. Silence is to be observed even by the su- 
perior. - - - - - 94 

XXII. The disposition of a daughter of the Vis- 
itation towards her superior. - - - 95 

XXIII. What should be her obedience, and what 
conditions it should have. - - "Go 



Chapter. Page. 

XXIV. How far the confidence of a daughter of 
the Visitation in her superior should extend. 97 

XXV. What should be the motive of this can- 
dor and confidence. - - - - 98 

XXVI. By what means she can advance most 
towards perfection. - - - - 98 

XXVII. What means she should employ to 
combat and overcome negligence and sloth. 99 

XXVIII. How careful she should be to employ 
her time wellj and to avoid amusements and 
plays. - - - - - - £9 

XXIX. What should constitute all her pleasure 
and joy. - - . « _ lOO 

XXX. How far her forgetfulness and contempt 

of the world should extend. - - - 101 

XXXI. How she ought to conduct herself when 
any secular enters the Monastery. - - 101 

XXXII. What should be the subject of her 
conversation. ----- 102 

XXXIII. What she ought to observe in her or- 
dinary entertainments. - - - io3 

XXXIV. How she ought to regard herself after 
what has been announced to her at her pro- 
fession. - - - " X ' ^^^ 

XXXV. Whereby she ought to supply the aus- 
terities which are practiced in other orders. - 105 

XXXVI. What should be her disposition in sick- 
ness. ------ 105 

XXXVII. Her patience and self-abandonment. 106 

XXXVIII. How she ought to regard a state of 
sickness. ----- 107 



Chapter. Page. 

XXXIX. How careful she ought to be in sick- 
ness to conform herself to Jesus Christ, suf- 
fering, and to abandon herself to God. - 107 

XL. How remote she ought to be from using 
the reliefs that might disedify her neighbor, 
and cause her to lose the spirit of her vocation. 108 

XLI. How remote she should be from accepting 
Abbeys. - . - - - - 109 

XLII. Her exactitude never to stray from the 
path marked out for her. - - - 110 

XLIII. She sh«inld be equally as faithful in the 
least as in the most considerable actions. - 111 

XLIV. True simplicity makes no distinction in 
those things in which the will of God is man- 
ifest. - - - - - - 111 

XLV. What shonld be the union among the 
Sisters, and on what it depends. - - 112 

XLVI. The obligation which this union imposes 
on the Sisters towards each other. - - 113 

XLVII. What should be the sentiments of a 
daughter of the Visitation, for all kinds of 
persons. - - - - - 113 

XLVIJI. What should be her love for her neigh- 
bor, and her sentiments for other Orders. - 114 

XLIX. Her horror for law-suits, and her dispo- 
sition if they cannot be avoided. - - 115 

L. What should be the love of a daughter of the 
Visitation for the will of God, and her abne- 
gation of her own. - - - - 117 

LI. The buildings and furniture of the Monas- 
tery. 118 



Chapter. Page. 

LII. What should be observed at th« burials of 

the Sisters. - - - - - 118 

LIIL How much the spirit of this order requires 
a reDaoval from all that could gratify the sen- 
ses, even in those things vt^hich have reference 
to piety. - - * - - - 119 

LIV. The character of the spirit of piety, sim- 
plicity and humility. - - - - 120 
.i.y. That every thing should be done through 
ran impulse of grace, and nothing through that 
of nature. - - - ♦ - - 120 
^VL What St. Francis, of Sales had principally 

in view in establishing his congregation. - 121 
iLVII. To consider only the interior disposition 
in the choice of subjects that present them- 
,S€lves. - - - - - 122 

LVIII. With what charity the strong Sisters 
ought to aid and support the infirm. - - 123 



Maxims of the Venerable Mother De Chantal, of the 

Visitation. 

Maxim. Page. 

I. On Humility. - - - - 125 

II. On Poverty. - - - - 127 

III. On Obedience. . - - - 129 

IV. On Abandonments to Divine Providence. - 131 

V. On Mortification. - - - - 134 

VI. On Exactitude in the Observances. - 138 



Page. 

A collection of some Maxim? and instructions on 
the practice of virtues which has not been in- 
serted in the preceding discourses. - - 140 

Sentiments of St. Francis, af Sales, on the Sa- 
cred Heart of Jesus, drawn from his writings. 148: 

Advice of our Holy Founder, to our Worthy 
Mother De Chantal. - - . ". 15a 

A prayer to our Holy Founder, composed by 
onr Worthy Mother. - - - - 15a 

Notice. -----. 154 



Extract from a letter of the Most Reverend Arch 
Bishop, 

" I have looked through the work which Mr. Tein- 
pleman is about to publish. It has my cordial approba- 
tion. Should it not be too late, he would do well to 
put on the title page, or other convenient place, the 
usual form : " With the approbation of the Most Rev- 
erend Arch-bishop Eccleston. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-211* 



